Hell on Earth
by magefeathers
Summary: In a world where the human race is a mere shadow of its former glory, can Aperture and the AI it has created offer a solution?
1. A New Life

Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.

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Author's Note: Well, it's finally happened. I've begun work on another fan fiction. One I hope to actually finish. My last couple of attempts have gotten off the ground and ended up crashing a few chapters later, so I am really hoping that this won't be the case. I've got a lot of ideas, just recently beat the game and am hyped up on energy drinks right now. Also, for anyone keeping score at home, this officially escalates me into Stage 4 of the fandom.

I am going to make this as in character as humanly possible, which may be a bit tricky considering the circumstances GLaDOS and Chell parted on. Then again, I suppose the whole reason for writing a fan fiction is to take some artistic liberty. Am I right? Although I haven't played Half-Life, I've spend a good hour reading up on history to make sure that this story fits in with the universe that these games take place in.

Needless to say, spoilers ahead.

So now, for your viewing pleasure "Hell on Earth".

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Hell on Earth

Chapter 1: A New Life

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It was funny, really. She had been dreaming of this day for who knows how long and now that it had finally come, Chell hardly knew what to do with herself. It wasn't as though she didn't have plans, ideas for her future, but a matter of acting on them. Chell frowned, prodding at the burning companion cube that had been spit out at her as she tried to come up with a plan. Wheat in this direction, fields in that...Aperture had certainly picked a prime location for secrecy and seclusion. Well, as long as she didn't walk around in circles, she was bound to run into something; a road, a house, a farmer. Some form of civilization. With a mental confirmation, Chell took one last look at the rather beat up looking companion cube, Aperture's science shed and started on her way.

The sun was shining brightly overhead in a clear, cloudless sky. Although a more optimistic mind would have taken this as a sign of well wishing on the girl's journey, Chell sorely wished for some cloud cover, maybe even a light sprinkle. Compared to the dank and cool atmosphere of the underground testing chambers, even the just a bit warmer than warm weather was smothering to the woman, and the sun's light seemed blinding and almost spiteful in its intensity. Well, there was one thing for certain. Artificial sunlight didn't hold a candle to the real thing.

Chell tried her best to stomp out her path, hoping to avoid back tracking or circling around. That was until a single, solidary tree blemished the horizon. A grin stretched across the woman's features, probably the first time an emotion had interupted her poker faced look of determination since... Chell realized she really had to think about that one. There had been a few times a smirk had pulled at her lips at Wheatley's expense, but could never afford a full out laugh or even a chortle. The poor sap had been afraid of turning on a flash light for goodness sake, and even his hacking skills were something to be poked fun at. Intelligence Dampening Sphere? More like a Gullibility Core. Her grin slowly disappeared back into her normal look of resolve, brows furrowing a bit as she reflected on her thoughts a moment. Should she have felt bad? Chell had spent so long below ground in Aperture's labs and isolated from human contact that it made her wonder what the appropriate emotional response was. She shook her head, realizing that her internal monologue was starting to sound more like a construct attempting to dichper human emotions. It was her or him. End of story.

The sun was beginning to approach the western horizon when she finally made it to the land mark, a house with a pick up truck just down the hill from it. Further past that was a dirt road, her first lead to salvation and putting Aperture behind her. From there? Who knew. Chell had childhood aspirations of becoming a scientist, like her father, but has long since then abandoned that idea. If she went her whole life without hearing the word 'science' again, Chell could have certainly lived a happy existance. Her pace was almost at a run now, fumbling a bit when her boot caught a root in the ground. Chell shook her head and jogged up the steps of the rustic little home, clunking across the planks of the porch with her high impact boots and banging on the door rather unceremoniously. Chell knew that she had been through Hell and her rush for human contact didn't leave much room for manners.

There was no answer.

Chell frowned, arching her arm back and banging on the door again. And, again, came no answer.

Maybe they weren't home. That must have been it. Chell thought for a moment and decided to test the doorknob, finding the door unlocked. From a moral stand point, she hesitated, knowing full well that breaking and entering was against the law. Then again, who left their home unlocked and unattended? Chell decided a quick peek inside wouldn't hurt anyone, resolving to stay put afterwards until the owners of the home returned.

The former test subject pushed the door open and poked her head around the corner. Chell's jaw fell slack at the sight inside, finding that the family was indeed home. Through the blood splattered living room, Chell could see the mostly decayed bodies of the assumed mother and father, another corpse lay on the floor with its skull blown apart across the floor. The former test subject finally worked up the nerve to enter the home, her steps quiet and deliberate. The blood stains were old and dried, the bodies had become husks long ago, but the stench of death still hung heavy in the air. Chell kept her distance from the kitchen, but stared at the deceased family. It looked as though they had been shot; the parents in the chest and the child in the head. But by what sort of weapon, Chell couldn't even imagine considering the explosive results of the injuries. The woman turned away from the kitchen and began to search the living room, briefly shuffling through some weathered papers. A stack of black and white fliers caught her attention, the words 'Join the Resistance' printed across their front. Resistance? To what?

It didn't seem as though there were any explanations laying around for her to find, the former test subject deciding that it wouldn't be in her best interests to hang around too long. Again, Chell felt as though she was lacking in compassion by her quick decision to take the keys to the truck outside, staring at the lifeless bodies once more. In a life or death situation, she knew she had to think on her feet and make decisions quickly. Chell knew she didn't have time to mourn the loss of a nameless family, seeing as whatever had killed them so long ago could easily return. However, she could give them one thing.

"Thanks for the truck." Chell said, her voice raspy from disuse.

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Author's Note: A short beginning, but more to come!  
> <p>


	2. Brave New World

Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.

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Author's Note: Thanks to all the reviewers on , even the slightest words of praise have always been a big motivator for me. A couple of the reviews seemed to show concern for not knowing anything about Half-Life, which I'm going to let you all know that anything that was not in Portal will be explained as thoroughly as needed. I know that when reading a fan fiction there are some things that don't need to be explained, but considering that a lot of the events in the Half-Life/Portal universe weren't actually revealed in Portal I will make sure to elaborate on it.

That said, we press onward!

~Mage

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Hell on Earth Chapter 2: Brave New World

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Her words of thanks were really all she could give to the deceased family, but all things considered it was a very thoughtful gift. Chell went back out of the front door, the keys of the truck jingling in her grasp. The sun had finally turned in for the night, the moon casting eerie shadows across the plains and fields all around her. At least it had cooled off quite a bit since she had first been ejected from the underground laboratory. Chell wandered over to the old pickup truck, inserted the key and pulled the door open, hopping into the front seat with some effort. The odd design of her high impact boots made it a bit difficult to work the pedals, but Chell decided that she would have to adapt to the situation. As she inserted the key into the ignition and turned it, she frowned a bit. 'That is if I can get the damned thing started,' Chell thought as the engine attempted to turn over, but just cranked painfully. The former test subject pumped the gas pedal and tried it again, the engine finally roaring to life. A grin of triumph graced her features, the woman looking out on the surrounding fields as the truck warmed up.

'Piece of cake,' Chell thought to herself, her mind beginning to recall all the promises of cake and surprises that GLaDOS had made in the past. Her smile promptly vanished again, the former test subject hitting the brake, putting the truck into reverse and pulling out onto the dirt road. That construct could keep all of her confections, her surprises and confetti to herself. Just as GLaDOS seemed to be happy to get rid of Chell, the woman seemed more than glad to stay out of the AI's hair as she pulled forward.

Chell leaned back in her seat as the truck puttered along, kicking up dust and dirt from the dry road before her. It wasn't long before dirt became gravel and gravel led into pavement. The pavement led to a frontage road, which merged onto a highway to heaven only knew where. The sun had only recently gone down, but there was no traffic on the road, not a soul in sight. It was rather eerie, really. It was like being in the test chambers all over again; alone, isolated. Chell shook her head, realizing how ridiculous she was being. She was in a back water town in Michigan; of course there was no one on the road. She really needed to stop letting her mind run away with her.

An hour of driving in silence later, the name of a somewhat familiar city caught her attention. 'Houghton Exit, 2 miles'. It wasn't exactly the biggest city, but it would be a good place to start. Not a single moving car was on the highway with her, though several vehicles were pushed to the side of the road, abandoned or torched. How long had she been away? The cars certainly had a different look to them, but seemed to function just the same. Same speedometer, same fuel type, at least she assumed. Chell turned the wheel slightly, pulling into the deceleration lane. She was being paranoid, worrying too much about something that didn't need to be fretted over. 'Just watch. You'll be starting your new life in no time,' Chell reassured herself. Of course, the sight of torched vehicles were never a reassuring sight and things only seemed to get worse as she continued forward to the harbor country city.

Houghton wasn't the biggest city in the world, but fairly impressive for upper Michigan. The roads had been littered with short, squat and inviting visitor's centers, hotels and restaurants. A regular tourist trap. Some of the largest buildings in the city were six story hotels, but had once been made up of smaller apartment buildings, homes. Like most tourist cities, there had once been plenty of landscaping, statues and other pretty things to look at. Chell remembered coming here as a child with her mother and father every summer, admiring the boats on the lake on the other side of town.

What she saw was a former ghost of the city's former glory. Many of the roads were now cracked, overgrown and broken, wildlife and vegetation taking a strangle hold on the once pristine harbor town. The buildings were dilapidated and caved in; windows were smashed, walls were torched and signs of rioting were abound. Chell was accelerating much more slowly than she had been before, though whether it was from trying to drive over the cracked pavement or sheer amazement to the changes of the city, it was hard to tell.

'How long have I been gone?' Chell couldn't help but think again, her gaze snapping up to the rearview mirror. It seemed that she was being followed by a group of people, though they didn't seem to be in the best condition judging by their limping and hobbling movements. Who knew what cataclysmic event had occurred? Whatever had happened and whatever condition these people were in, they seemed to be her best bet for finding a place to stay. Chell applied pressure to the brake, put the truck into park and removed the key. After killing the head lights, Chell pushed the door open and hopped out, the arches of her boots springing slightly from the impact.

She put her hands up to show she was unarmed, turning towards the group of people that were quickly approaching her.

"Hi there." Chell piped up, calling out to them. No one answered, simply approached. She was a bit unnerved by their silence, but they didn't seem to be drawing any weapons. The former test subject couldn't help but feel that something was terribly out of place, calling out again. "I'm just looking for a place to stay the night. You guys-"

The fastest of the group passed the threshold of the tailgate and lurched forward, the moonlight glinting against the apparent shell of a tick-like creature. A creature that was attached to the person's face. Chell stumbled back a step as the humanoid creature gurgled and swiped at her, still having to take a moment to process exactly what was going on. However, as the second creature began to encroach on her side, Chell determined her best course of action; run like hell.

She took off at a run, the gaggle of zombie-like humans stumbling in a pack after her, gurgling and spitting in a disgusting manner. Chell couldn't believe this. She escapes the clutches of a homicidal AI just to be chased by a pack of zombies. If there was one thing GLaDOS had taught her with the acid pits, the child-like turrets and trip to the incinerator was that life didn't give you do-overs. There was no second life or cheat code and if you fucked up, then roll credits, you're through. An all too familiar look of determination pressed itself on Chell's features as she began to come up with a plan. She had come too far to get ripped apart now. It wasn't too hard to out run the creatures, but whereas Chell was already beginning to tire, the head crab creatures were relentless in their pursuit. The silhouette of a bridge that had been taken out by something got her attention. If she could keep up her pace, it would be perfect.

With a renewed sense of vigor, Chell scrambled down a side street and continued to run. Her legs were beginning to cramp with fatigue from the exertion of her slow uphill climb, but she pressed onward, much too stubborn to give up. Chell vaguely noted the sound of gun shots behind her, but whoever was aiming wasn't a very good shot, the zombies still lurching after her with full man power. The bridge had been a part of a road leading to the highway, the demolished portion only giving way to an unyielding slab of concrete below.

"What are you doing!" a yell came from behind, but was too far to be more than a whisper to the former test subject's and her pursuer's ears. Chell didn't slow down as she launched herself into a jump off the bridge, the momentum created by her action carrying her just out of her hunters' clutches as she tumbled into a free fall, the pack of zombies doing the same. Her weighted boots made sure she landed feet first, whereas the zombies fell and toppled about in the air.

With a deafening 'crack', Chell hit the ground. The high impact boots managed to crack the already stressed pavement, but kept their wearer perfectly safe in the fall. Chell could vaguely hear a stream of cursing from the bridge above, which was quickly replaced by the sickening thunks, cracks and dying groans of the zombies. That little feeling of victory when she had successfully completed a test was still there, though this time the metaphorical cake at the end of the chamber was real and jogging back down the road to come off the bridge. Chell cast a glance back at the pile of zombies, who were still twitching and writhing in spite of their broken limbs, sputtering angrily at their aggressor. Chell figured that they weren't going anywhere and turned her back, starting to walk towards the person who had been calling out before and was rushing up to meet her.

"You're alive! Jesus, how in the hell did you manage THAT?" came the exasperated response of a middle aged woman carrying a double barreled shotgun.

"...high impact boots. I've made longer falls." Chell said and looked the woman over, leaning and tapping the side of her footwear. The woman that stood before her was certainly...something. A survivor in this terrible world Chell found herself flung in to, the woman was broad shouldered and, just as Chell's face tended towards a look of determination, the woman seemed to be eternally set to 'pissed off' mode. The woman's hair was chopped short, as though she had done it herself judging by the awkward angles and juts of greying brown hair. Her face was smeared with dirt, her clothes disheveled and soiled.

"First person I seened in nearly five years and I'm thinking you're going and killing yourself." the woman said with a sigh, throwing her head to the side to indicate that she wanted Chell to follow her. "You got a place to stay kiddo?"

Chell shook her head, more than glad to follow after the shot gun toting woman before her. Sure, she was armed. But she was certainly more inviting than the zombies that had recently tried to make a meal of her.

"Name's Rosie. What d'ya called yourself?"

"Chell."

"Short for anything?"

"Michelle."

"Don't talk much, do you?"

Chell felt it appropriate to shake her head in response. Rosie gave a guffaw, seeming to think the action was a joke and gave Chell a good shove.

"I'll tell you what, even if you were deaf, mute and dumb you'd still be better company than them fellas." Rosie replied, continuing alongside of the former test subject. Chell couldn't help but finally get curious, voicing her primary concern.

"What happened here?" Chell said, knowing that the question was probably rather ambiguous.

"Happened here? Nothing much. It's been like this since I got here anyhow." Rosie replied, looking around.

"I don't remember it looking anything like this." Chell replied simply.

"Maybe you're talking about somewhere else hon. From what I've found over the last ten years of scroungin' and livin' here, Houghton's been a shit hole for about a hundred years, give or take." Rosie said, frowning. "Then again, nearly every city's a shit hole now. For all I know, you 'n' I are the only ones alive on this damned planet."

Rosie seemed to be in particularly good humor as she spoke this sentiment, Chell staring at the woman incredulously.

"You seem confused." Rosie said, the look of humor draining from her face and resuming 'pissed off' mode. Chell sighed as Rosie pushed open the door to a visitor's center, taking in her surroundings.

"The last time I was here everything was perfect. There were boats on the lake." Chell said, rubbing her temples as she tried desperately to recall whatever memories she could from her past life. "My mom and dad took me to get ice cream, right down the street from here. It was sunny, the Fourth of July weekend. We watched the fireworks over the lake and everything."

Rosie stared at Chell as though she were stark raving mad. And, for all Rosie knew, Chell was. Fireworks? Boats? God damn, this girl must have been really out of touch with reality. Then again, in a world like this who wanted to keep touch with reality?

There was a singular light bulb going in one of the activity rooms of the visitor's center, some bedding set up on a cot in the corner. Rosie shook her head, patting Chell on the shoulder.

"Why don't you get some sleep? I'll keep a look out and give ya a better explanation on what's going on in the morning." Rosie said to Chell, her tone a bit softer than it had been before. The former test subject frowned a bit, but decided not to argue with an offer of hospitality.

"...alright," Chell replied, going to the cot. "Thanks."

"Ah, don't mention it." Rosie said with a shake of her head, turning to exit the room. "Sleep tight." 


	3. The Real Nightmare

Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.

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Disclaimer: Holy shnikes, working on the third chapter of this story over the course of two days. Well, standard read and review request here.

~Mage

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Chapter 3: The Real Nightmare

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Chell didn't remember falling asleep; the soft sound of a breeze began to infiltrate her sense of hearing and the cry of gulls finally irritating her enough to open her eyes. The former test subject looked around, realizing that she was somehow now on a boat and that it was in fact day time. She blinked in confusion and looked about, standing shakily on the small row boat she had found herself in. She hadn't been in one of these since she had been a kid; her dad was usually the one to handle the oars. Chell looked around, the city of Houghton still a skeletal wreckage of its former self; the silhouettes of the buildings on the shore seemed far off and hazy.

" 'ey! You're alive!"

Chell nearly dropped the oar in surprise at the sudden shout from someone nearby. She whipped around, but found she was still the only passenger on the boat.

"Down here!"

She recognized that voice. Chell went to the side of the dinky little rowboat, the rounded surface of a personality core floating in the water, popping up and down like an oversized bobber. The core's blue optic lit up in recognition, managing to nod in approval.

"Great! Now, give me a -burble- hand, will you?" the core's request came, still bobbing up and down on the surface of the water.

It couldn't be. He was in space with all those other corrupted cores. But Chell still began to paddle the small boat towards the familiar, blue eyed core, the front of the boat banging into him and pushing him aside.

"Ow, that hurt. Not quite as much as re-entering the atmosphere, but still hurt."

Chell put the oar back in the boat and leaned forward, grabbing the core up by his rail and lifting him up into the boat.

"...Wheatley?" she said, quirking a brow as she sat him down on the seat adjacent from her.

"No, it's GLaDOS." Wheatley said with a roll of his optic, Chell not finding his stab at humor amusing. "...sarcasm, right. Not a good ice breaker here."

Chell shook her head as though it should have been obvious.

"Well, I am glad that you're alive. Really." the Intelligence Dampening Sphere began, nodding his head as best he could to emphasize his sentiment. "Look! We both made it out alive!"

The former test subject didn't say another word, any of the regret that she had felt about shooting him out into space vanishing as he continued to chatter unapologetically.

"I think the others are around here somewhere, but...well, who really cares? We've got you. And me. And some birds-ah, birds!" Wheatley said, his rails indicating a flinch. She could hardly believe it. Even after being disconnected from the lab's mainframe it seemed that he was revealing his true colors; a self-centered, cowardly little creep. Although a part of Chell was desperately trying to deny it, that the closest thing she had to a friend had only been corrupted by GLaDOS's body and became drunk with power, here he was prattling on as though nothing had been wrong. Chell struggled to keep a straight face, forcing herself to face the facts. She had been a fool, blinded by the all too human need for companionship. "Yup, you, me. Those birds. That bloke right there."

That bloke? Chell spun around and nearly yelled in surprise, one of the head crab zombies from before had been plopped in the seat behind her. Chell lifted up her paddle to smash the creature in the face, but he was lifted out of reach before she could do so, pulled away from them by a large, mechanical pincer.

"Oops. How did that get there?"

Like a beast rising from the depths, GLaDOS rose from the placid surface of the water and dropped the creature to the side like a soiled napkin. Chell fell on her rump in the boat, staring in disbelief. It was all happening so fast, Aperture coming back to swallow her up like a nightmare.

"Oh dear," Wheatley sputtered, looking just about as thrilled about this little adventure as Chell did. But, the former test subject did not give either one of the AI's the satisfaction of hearing her reaction. Strands of what appeared to be sea weed clung to the massive construct's body, giving her the same weathered and damaged appearance that she had in her overgrown lair. However, Chell found herself at an extreme disadvantage this time around, with no portal gun and hardly two yards of space to stand on. The same claw that had discarded the zombie so quickly began to lower towards Chell, GLaDOS's calm and chilling voice beginning to explain the situation.

"I don't like to do this anymore than you do...wait. Yes I do. But that is beside the point." GLaDOS began, the claw snapping at Chell and missing. "But we must put our differences behind us. For science."

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"Chell, Chell!"

"Ah-!"

Chell shot up with a gasp, her body covered in sweat. There was no GLaDOS, no Wheatley. Just Chell, on a cot, and the bear of a woman that had welcomed the former test subject into her home. Rosie was towering over the bed, looking down on Chell with an apparent frown of concern. "Just heard ya hollering and thought some critter had snuck in. Just havin' a bad dream, huh?"

Although Chell wished to repeat the words 'just a dream', she found herself struggling to find her voice and simply nodded in response, hugging her knees to her chest with a breath. Of course it was a dream; she should have realized it sooner. Chell was never very demonstrative, and the fact that she had cried out in her sleep did nothing for her sense of pride, especially in front of a total stranger. Rosie gave the woman a good slap on the back, calling her back to reality with a sudden jerk.

"You worry too much. Quit it," Rosie said, a sneering expression pulling across her features. "We got bigger fish to fry. I went lookin' for my great granddad's clippin's album, but turns out I left the damned thing back at the last place I was stayin'. Left in such a hurry I forgot all about it 'til now."

Chell's brows knitted together in slight confusion, managing a short question. "Clippings album?"

"Yeah, y'know? Newspapers?" Rosie said with a chortle, putting her hands on her hips. "They got those on the planet you hail from, right?"

Chell didn't find much humor in the joke, forcing a small chuckle for the survivor's sake.

"Alright, I know what a newspaper is." Chell sighed as she released her knees and stood up.

"Good. My great granddad collected a whole bunch of clippings from papers when he was a kid, so did my granddad...not many papers around when my dad was a kid, and hell, I've hardly got a roof over my head let alone newspapers to read. Anyhow, I figured they'd be able to explain what's been going on better than I can. You can read 'em, see if that triggers some memories and I can fill in the gaps." Rosie said, outlining her itinerary. "Sound good?"

Chell nodded in agreement, not seeing anything wrong with her plan.

"It's about a three hour walk across town," Rosie said, starting to pack herself a small travel bag. In went the med kit, a water bottle... "Figure if we get scootin' soon, we should be able to make it back before it gets too dark out. Oh and almost forgot. Brought you some breakfast."

"Thanks," Chell said and took the few pieces of dried meat that were offered to her. She was almost too afraid to ask what sort of meat they were, and decided it was probably better that she didn't know as she took a bite.

"Hope you don't mind eatin' on the road," Rosie replied and started walking out of the smaller room, into the main lobby. Chell shook her head silently, putting on her boots and following the survivor. "Sorry, but the sooner we get back, the sooner you can catch up, right?"

Chell replied with a quick affirmative nod. Although Chell's silence seemed to irritate Rosie, the survivor kept her own mouth shut as she pushed the doors open, leading the way.

"Good day to be travelin'," Rosie said as they exited the building and began to make their way down the cracked roads. The sun was beaming overhead, not a cloud in the sky. Chell finally seemed to be able to take in the scope of the devastation of the small harbor city, looking around as her and Rosie walked on. It seemed that the creatures that had attacked them the night before had retreated for the day, perhaps waiting to hunt when the sun wasn't so strong. The former test subject couldn't help but shudder at the thought of being hunted. Chell had hoped the nightmare would have been over when she left Aperture; but the more she looked around, the more she realized it had followed her. Although Rosie babbled on in the background about her father this and her granddad that, but Chell couldn't force herself to pay attention. By the time they had made it across town a few hours later, it didn't really seem to matter that Chell hadn't heard a word she said, Rosie's banter trailing off to a halt when they arrived. It was another visitor's center, but wasn't in very good condition looking at the shape of things. Half of the building was collapsed in; the other half seemed scorched by some fire or another.

"God damn it, if his album's ruined-" Rosie muttered, more mad at herself for leaving something to dear to her out at the mercy of the elements. The survivor began to dig through other papers that had settled in other parts of the building, Chell slowly following in after. "Ah! Here it is."

There was a certain sense of pride in Rosie's words, the survivor coming back out and presenting the two thick albums to the former test subject. Chell took them gingerly, making a move to open one.

"Just hold to 'em for now. You can read 'em once we get back." Rosie said and started walking back the way she came. Chell masked a look of offense, letting the book close as she carried them against her chest. And, like before, Rosie began to chatter, Chell remaining quiet and nodded when needed. When they finally began to approach the 'home' visitor's center, Rosie trotted ahead to kick on the singular light bulb and generator, Chell finding a comfortable spot to sit and read. She was dying of curiosity, reading through the articles as quickly as she could.

The first few were dated back in the sixties, outlining scientific break-through by different laboratories, Black Mesa and Aperture having a good majority of the spots. There were a few familiar images and titles as Chell read and skimmed through the past articles of the 60's...70's...80's, but nothing truly illuminating. She vaguely noted the article announcing GLaDOS's activation and Aperture's first 'Bring Your Daughter to Work' day. The girl shuddered at the memory of the event, quickly skipping that article to look into the next. More work in AI seemed to stem from Aperture, detailing their plans of brain mapping and electronic preservation. The next began to describe cryogenic freezing and the use of AI to ensure the successful reanimation of the bodies, but the former test subject skimmed over it, feeling ill enough reading about it all over again. Chell's reading became a bit more detailed as the headlines seemed to change from words praising the miracle of science and technology to words demeaning and blaming it. The date wasn't on the clipping, but the bold title 'What had science done?' drew her attention, grey eyes beginning to scan over the post year 2000 text.

As she read the article, and then the next and the next, Chell began to piece together what had happened. A laboratory by the name of Black Mesa had been at odds with Aperture for years and had completed a project that was meant to rival the quantum tunneling device. As she read on, it seemed that the device's test runs had gone terribly wrong, tearing a rift in what one could only consider the 'wrong dimension' and ushered in a new era of death and warfare. The planet was overrun by an alien scourge known as the Combine, defeating all military forces in a matter of seven hours and laying claim to the planet as their own.

That happened back in 200- it still begged the question how long had she been gone?

Chell began to realize how much time she had lost in stasis, as the articles described hostile take-overs, the Combines strangle-hold on resources, the use of humans as slaves. Concentration camps, exotic disease and parasite outbreaks seemed to continue over the span of decades. As Chell began to proceed to the next album, it only seemed to march down the same path. The final articles began to discuss the Resistance, a group of humans rising up and fighting against the Combine. 'So that's what they were killed for,' Chell thought as she recalled the cryptic posters at the family's home she had left the day before. The final article was titled, 'If We Can't Have It, No One Can!'.

It seemed that the human race's only solution against combating such a terrible menace had been committing a nuclear suicide, bombs being launched into Combine strongholds and mines, destroying as many of Earth's resources for the simple fact of making the planet worthless to the Combine. Chell closed the book, going to seek out Rosie in order to clarify things. The survivor was polishing and cleaning her gun as the former test subject approached, opening the book to the final article. Rosie looked up at the headline and went back to polishing her gun, brows furrowing in a contemplative way.

"Pity, ain't it? Human race seemed like nothing more than a bunch of bratty little kids," Rosie scoffed, assuming that Chell's action was her way of requesting more information. "That was back in 2090, when my dad was just a teen. Y'see, when he was a kid, things was so dangerous between the Invaders and the critters they brought along that living on your own outside of a city was suicide. They decided that it was no way to live and that bombing the shit out of everything was a better alternative. So, that's what they did. Set off nukes all over the world. We killed friend and enemy alike, leveling plains, fields and mines just to prove a point. Hell, 'round here there's still radiation zones y'gotta stay from out west. And, although we shot ourselves in the foot, it worked. The Combine finally decided that our planet wasn't worth bothering any more. Problem is, now we got no one else here. The biggest city run by the Combine was City 17. That was flattened. All the other colonies...well, between the radiation and portal storms, raining down monstrosities and God only knows what else, there ain't many of us left."

Chell couldn't believe what she was hearing. The former test subject had finally earned her freedom, for what? To be one of the two people left alive on the face of the Earth? She cast her eyes downwards and slumped against the wall as it finally seemed to hit her; there was no one left. There were no cities to return to, no hint of familiarity left in this world she had been so cruelly thrown into. 'Maybe I was better off at her mercy.' Chell thought bitterly, narrowing her eyes as she pondered. She remembered reading one of her father's journals when she was a girl, outlining an experiment involving rats and learned helplessness. Before an electric shock was administered to the control group, a bell would go off and the rats would learn to run to a platform to avoid the jolt, but they were otherwise active, alert and curious. The experimental group received no such warning and would be shocked erratically, leading to a cowering group of rats too terrified to leave the platform, starving themselves for fear of being punished.

Chell took a breath and collected her thoughts. No, she wasn't going to think that way. She knew she was better than that, than letting fear prevent her from living. Rosie had allowed the girl her few moments of silence and felt it necessary to interject again.

"I had a family m'self. Husband, beautiful son. But there was a nasty portal storm, dropped all sorts of nasty creatures by the town we was living in." Rosie started, putting her gun back together. "I was the only one that made it out."

"...I'm so sorry." Chell said, finding her voice for the first time since that morning. Decades of silence had certainly made it hard to converse normally, but Rosie seemed to be tolerating her unusual speaking habits rather well. The survivor seemed to appreciate the condolence, biting her lip as tears began to well up a bit in her eyes. Rosie exhaled and wiped her face on her sleeve, managing to smudge the tears into the dirt streaks across her face.

"That's why I came all the way up here." Rosie said, trying her best not to choke up again. The survivor set her gun aside and picked up the second album, flipping back towards the articles involving Aperture's experiments in AI. "This article right here. Said that they stored fifty men and fifty women in a 'long term cryogenic stasis' in Aperture labs. There were others in short term hibernation, but from what the paper says, they'd all be dead now."

Chell glimpsed over the text, wondering if she had been a part of that portion that was supposed to be dead. She remembered Wheatley saying something that sounded similar, but the former test subject had been in such a disoriented state that she didn't remember exactly what was said.

"I did manage some poking around, but didn't come up with anything that helped me find them." Rosie sighed, closing the book again. "Ah, even if I did find 'em, I wouldn't have the first idea on how to wake 'em up. And could you imagine what'd happen if I did? Ha! I'd probably declare myself queen and retire right then and there, I'll tell you what."

Chell gave a small chuckle, shaking her head a bit.

"Don't worry; I'll let you be my second in command." Rosie cackled, glad to see a smile on the despondent girl's face. "We'll rule the colony together, you and me."

"Sounds like a plan." Chell said with a smile, her shoulders arching defensively when Rosie gave her a smack on the back. "But you said you didn't find anything."

"Well, didn't find anything in the main building." Rosie admitted. "There were some elevators with their cars missing, so I dropped a penny down the shaft to see how far it went down. Never heard from that penny again, which means it's too far down for a woman of my physique to be climbin'."

"...I could always go down." Chell said. Her logical mind seemed to catch up with the sentiment, realizing what she had volunteered herself for. "I mean, not right this second. But, sometime."

"Oh yeah? Well, the lab's in a town about twenty miles west of here." Rosie said, settling back against the wall. "Really, from what I saw it looked more like a museum or a school than labs. Didn't seem like there was any room in that rinky dink little place for anything worth experimentin' on. Then again, what the hell do I know?"

"More than I do," Chell replied, staring at the ceiling.

"What makes you say that?" Rosie asked with a grunt.

"...nothing. Just mumbling." Chell said.

"Eh? Whatever." Rosie said. "Anyhow, it'd be best if we walked along the expressway instead of drivin'. That's how you get them head crab zombies on ya, and those boots can't help you when you've got nothing more than fields in every direction for miles."

"Well, I'm not exactly in a hurry." Chell said, stretching a bit. Rosie nodded and chewed her lip for a moment.

"How about we spend some time stocking up some supplies for our trip? A couple days worth of scroungin' and packin', we can work on your shootin' if that's needed," Rosie mused. "You do know how to shoot a gun, right?"

Although her gut reaction was yes, Chell knew very well that the minimal blow-back from the portal gun was hardly anything compared to the bite of a real firearm. The former test subject shook her head.

"God damn, you're more sheltered than I thought," Rosie said. "How you made it this far, I have no idea. But we'll work on that tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm going to get myself some shut-eye. You'd probably best do the same. We got a long day ahead of us tomorrow hon."

Picking up the albums, Chell nodded. Although it wasn't quite the new life she was expecting, it was still all in her hands now. As she sat down on the cot that Rosie had let her use the night before, Chell began to wonder how long she might be able to stave off this trip back to Aperture. 


	4. Stranger in a Strange World

Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.

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Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews on guys, you've all been really helpful in motivating me to update and improving my writing skills. The fact that Chell doesn't precisely give you a lot to use in game to hash her out as a character seeing as she doesn't speak and almost all her actions are controlled by the player, she is definitely a challenge to write for. But from all the compliments I've been getting, it seems I'm doing a bang up job of it and will keep doing what I'm doing. The personality I see her having does give her quite a bit room for development, which definitely makes the story more interesting for both the writer and the readers.

I also want to send a sincere thank you to the contributors of the Half-Life Wiki project, without whom this fic would be severely deviating from everything that was supposed to have happened in this universe. XD

Anyhow, enough of my babble! Let's get on to some old fashioned adventure time!

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Chapter 4: Stranger in a Strange Land

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Chell's dreams weren't quite as dire as they had been the night before, affording the woman a full night's worth of sleep. It seemed that shooting head parasite zombies with a jerky gun was more of an amusing situation than a panicked one, considering that in the imaginary world they exploded when coming into contact with the cured meat projectile. Chell woke feeling refreshed and invigorated, leaving the smaller makeshift bedroom in search for the veteran of this strange world, ready to go scrounging for whatever supplies they would need.

It seemed that Rosie wasn't in as much of a hurry as Chell had first thought, the bear of a woman poking idly at a fire she had started outside. A metallic kettle hung suspended over the embers, steam beginning to escape from the spout. Rosie whipped around at the sound of footsteps, but relaxed upon seeing Chell. "Damn, scared me. You want some coffee? Found a couple packages while I was doing some wanderin' around this mornin'. Other than that, I got some more jerky and protein bars right there if you want those for breakfast."

Chell couldn't help but grin at the mental image of the jerky gun blasting the zombies to kingdom come, Rosie tilting her head at the other woman's unusual response. "What're you grinnin' about?" Rosie asked slyly, sitting back on her makeshift seat that consisted of a flipped over orange bucket. She seemed intrigued by the sudden good humor displayed by the younger woman, leaning forward as she waited for a response.

"...nothing, just thinking about a joke I've heard." Chell replied, her grin quickly fading to her normal 'poker faced' look. Of course, she wasn't a very good liar and Rosie was more astute than she appeared, deciding to verbally prod the woman.

"Oh really? What joke would that be?" Rosie said, not looking up from the fire. Well, now Chell had been really put onto the spot. She didn't know any good jokes involving the current topic at hand, so began to search her memory for any joke that she might have had in storage, as corny as it may have been. Her quick reaction time had served her well before and blurted out the first joke that finally came to mind.

"What do you get when you cross a lemon and a cat?" Chell sputtered, the initial confidence she had started with dying away as she delivered the punch line. "...a sour puss."

"...boy, I haven't heard that joke since I was knee high to a grasshopper." Rosie replied, her small grin finally giving way to a series of hearty chuckles. Chell couldn't help but crack a bit of a smile herself.

"Yeah, it is a pretty dumb one." Chell replied, threading her fingers through her hair.

"Well, duh. But that's why it's funny." Rosie replied with a nod. The survivor took a moment to mix her concoction with a weathered old spoon, looking through the kettle's top to check it. "Well, I hope you don't mind grounds in your coffee."

"I'll pass. Thanks." Chell said with a dismissive wave of her hand, helping herself to a protein bar that Rosie had offered before. The survivor shrugged and took the kettle off from over the heat, beginning to stir the concoction again.

"Alright, well lemme drink this down right quick. After that, we can spend some time lookin' around. By the looks of it, you need yourself some new clothes. We'll need some more food for the walk, but other than that, I've got enough stuff to pack and carry with us." Rosie said, taking a swig of the campfire brewed coffee. Chell couldn't help but wonder why Rosie hadn't seemed to draw attention to the obvious logo on her shirt when mentions of Aperture began to come about the day before, the former test subject not really realizing it until now. As Rosie finished off her pot of coffee, Chell stole a quick glimpse down as herself and seeing how filthy she had gotten over the past few days, the logo on the once white t-shirt was obscured with muck, mud and grime. Probably from that run with the head crab zombies, there had been quite a few puddles she had stumbled through. Rosie let out a loud 'ah' and got to her feet. "We ready to mosey on out?"

Chell gave an affirmative nod, able to find her voice a bit more easily than she had in days past, despite the deliverance of such a corny joke to start off the morning.

"So where exactly are we going to find clothes?" Chell asked, realizing that it wasn't as though they could simply walk to a corner store to go shopping.

"There's a big box store on the south end of town that's still in pretty good shape." Rosie replied, keeping a steady pace. "It's where I get most of my clothes. bout the only thing it is good for, seeing as all the food and survival gear's gone already."

"You used it up already?" Chell said, giving Rosie a look.

"What? Hell no," Rosie sputtered, looking a bit offended. "It was gone when I got here. I'm guessing either it got looted by survivors that were here before me, or looted by the citizens before the survivors."

Chell didn't really have much to say in response, so simply gave a nod and a shrug.

"Even before they started setting nukes off, I'm sure that this city was half burned down from rioting. course, ain't like this is a rad zone," Rosie said, taking on her rambling tone again. "But you know what I mean."

It wasn't before long that the caved in ruin of a large department store loomed before them, the two women walking across the abandon parking lot. It was so eerie, seeing sights like this. It would have normally been a hub of activity and bustling with people, now all but overgrown and dilapidated. Rosie rummaged through her pack and pulled out a large lantern, turning it on.

"Alright, let's hurry up. Don't want to waste any battery time." Rosie said as they entered the building, leading the way to where the women's clothing department had been. "I'm sure it's obvious, but a couple rules when finding things to wear. Don't get any shirts that are too loose, don't get pants that're too tight. Loose shirts are easier for those damned crabs to grab onto and tight pants don't let you move 'round right. Besides, it ain't like there's anyone left to wear 'em for anyways."

Chell chuckled as she began rummaging through the clothes. Most of them had been removed from their hangers and were strewn across the ground, many of them having rips and tears from animals attempting to find proper nesting materials. Chell picked up a promising long sleeve shirt, but frowned at the rips and tears in it.

"As long as the holes aren't too big, I can sew it up when we get back." Rosie said, looking over the article in question. "Yeah, that ain't bad. Hand it over, you keep looking."

Chell did as told, beginning to dig through a bit more quickly. She wasn't even entirely sure exactly what size she wore anymore, so ended up sticking with articles of clothing that allowed for a bit more flexibility in their wearer's size; a couple pairs of sweat pants, t-shirts and long sleeved shirts. Rosie had set the lantern down and wandered around the corner, hollering, "What size boot you wear?"

"...9? 10-ish?" Chell called back, not looking up from her search.

"Alright, catch!" Rosie called only after she had thrown Chell two packages of socks, the cotton-y projectile managing to smack its target right in the face. Chell yelped in surprise and fell onto her rump, shooting Rosie an angry look. "Whoo-hoo, bull's eye! Score one for dead eye Rosie."

"Dead eye Rosie is going to find herself traveling a very quiet journey if she throws anything at me again." Chell said, the initial anger fading as she made her playful threat. Rosie frowned and scratched her greying locks.

"Well damn, way to take the wind out of my sails." Rosie muttered, putting her hands on her hips. "Alright, alright. No more throwin' things. I like it better when you're telling jokes."

"Sorry to disappoint, but that's the only one I had in my artillery." Chell said, picking up the few outfits she had found up in her arms.

"That's alright; I got a ton of 'em!" Rosie said, giving Chell a smack on the back. "By the way, underwear's around that shelf and bras too. Try to find some comfy ones because I'm sure you know we may have to run like hell."

"Er...thanks." Chell said as Rosie grabbed the clothes out of her arms. Chell vanished down the indicated aisle and emerged a few moments later with the remaining bits of clothing needed.

"Okay, let's get outside and pack these up. Next stop is some houses to find some food." Rosie said and started for the front door again. Once outside of the building, Rosie turned off the lantern and stuffed the clothes inside of a knapsack she had brought. "I think it's safe enough for us to split up. Just look for any canned foods, freeze dried food...use your brain basically."

"I don't need to be told to do that," Chell replied.

"Well, if you made it this far without using a gun, you must be doing something right." Rosie said, going her own way. It took them most of the rest of the afternoon to search the three blocks of one story homes, coming up with a meager handful of canned goods, some aged bottles of water and even an unopened box of protein bars. However, Rosie seemed satisfied with the haul and packed it all up, starting to lead the way back home. "Alright, we're pretty much stocked up. Tomorrow we'll work on your shooting and can get some practice on the way down."

The two women returned to camp and settled in for the night just as they had done before, waking up at the same time and sharing similar conversations. After a quick clean up and change of clothes, Chell watched as Rosie disassembled her gun, showing the girl all the components and inner workings. "No reason you should be shooting a gun if you don't know how to maintain it," was Rosie's reasoning for starting off this way, moving onto reloading the ammo, how to properly stock the magazine for her rifle and loading in the buck shots to the shot gun.

Finally came target practice. As Chell had thought, there was quite a bit more that went into aiming a live firearm compared to the relatively simple point and shoot method of the portal gun. But, with some help, she seemed to do well enough as she shot cans and bottles off of rocks and ledges.

"It takes quite some time to get used to shooting it in a life or death situation," Rosie said as Chell worked on stocking a magazine. "I'm planning on doing most of the shootin' if we get into trouble, but I just need to know that you can do something if need be."

"I think I can handle it." Chell said with an air of confidence that seemed to reassure Rosie.

"Atta girl." Rosie said. Another day had gone by in the company of her new companion, the survivor beginning to pack up everything they would need for the journey west. "We're heading out first thing tomorrow morning. Just don't stay up too late."

Chell didn't need to be told twice, able to get to sleep with relative ease.

It seemed that the following morning had been quieter than the days prior, the two women packing things up around their make-shift camp in preparation for their 20 mile relocation. "Food's startin' to get kind of scarce around these parts; I think it might be time for a change of scenery." Rosie started off the conversation. "Don't leave anything behind that's important 'cause I don't think we'll be coming back here for quite some time."

It wasn't as though there was really much to pack up; their food, ammo, clothes and water. Rosie made sure that both of her keepsake albums went into her bag this time, checking around the visitor's center one last time. "Alright, lemme roll up these sleepin' bags, strap 'em to our bags and load our guns and we'll be good to go." Rosie announced, starting to roll up the blankets. The book bags were heavier than Chell had thought, but knew that their pace wasn't exactly going to grueling. Rosie came back out of the building with her shotgun in one hand and the rifle in another, offering the rifle to Chell. "You seemed more comfortable with this one yesterday. Hopefully we won't need to use it, but better safe than sorry, right?"

"That's what they say," Chell agreed, gripping the firearm in both hands and holding it against her chest.

"Atta girl," Rosie said with a certain pride in her voice. "Well, no use mopin' around any longer. Let's get going."

With that, they began their long trek to the main building of the Aperture Science Enrichment Center, Rosie leading the way to the main highway. A road that Chell hoped didn't end any time soon. 


	5. Hitchhiker's Guide to Aperture

Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.

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Chapter 5: Hitchhiker's Guide to Aperture

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The first day of travel went on rather uneventfully. The weather held up well enough to where the women were comfortable and didn't get rained on. There were no creatures in sight either as they traversed the plains and fields on a manmade path of asphalt and stone. Chell couldn't help but slow her pace as they traveled through a forest in awe of how unaffected they all seemed by everything that had happened. Even though mankind wasn't exactly doing so well, it seemed that the planet was quick to move on without them. It was sort of belittling, when she thought about, how insignificant they really were. Her brows furrowed a bit, begging the question, what now? Sure, they were going to Aperture in hopes of finding more people in stasis, but heaven only knew if anyone was still alive.

Anyone that wasn't a construct anyways.

As they put together a makeshift camp on the highway, Chell couldn't help but mull over how important this trip really was. Would it make a difference? Or was it just two lone survivors desperately searching for a way to continue a dead race? Although the former test subject thought this was a bit pessimistic, she had always been a realist. There was no reason to talk it up, because the only person she was fooling was herself. The night went through as uneventful as the daytime and the two women were off again the next morning. It wasn't long before signs announcing the proximity of Mass City grabbed Rosie's attention, the survivor grinning a bit to herself. "Alright, just another three miles until our exit." she said.

Chell looked out on the golden fields of wheat, wondering exactly where that dinky little shed was that led to the deeper roots of the science facility. As she gazed out on the nature that surrounded them, something caught her attention in the near distance. She couldn't quite make it out, but it was another sort of creature standing atop a vehicle in a ditch. "Rosie, Rosie hold on." Chell said in a hushed tone, pointing at the unusual being. It was bipedal, that much she could see, but it was quite a bit taller than a normal person. She squinted, making out the detail of a single eye taking up a majority of its mouthless face. "...is that?"

"Gimme my rifle." Rosie said in a similarly hushed tone, the two women crouching down to hide behind a cement barrier between the ditch and the highway. Chell didn't hesitate, the women exchanging weapons. Truth be told, Rosie had never seen a member of the Combine, but she knew enough about their ways to never trust anything remotely non-human.

"Rosie, what is it?" Chell asked in a hushed tone, the survivor's eyes narrowing in concentration as she aimed at the creature standing atop the vehicle.

"Shut up." the survivor ordered. Chell was taken aback by the sudden aggression, but kept quiet afterwards. Rosie squeezed the trigger, then came the bang of the gun and a howl of pain from the creature. It fell from its perch atop the car, its knee too wounded to run. "Gimme that, take this."

Rosie traded guns once again, running out from behind the cement barrier before Chell could argue. The former test subject grabbed up the rifle and ran after Rosie, worried that she was rushing into a combat that they might not win. However, the ring of the shot gun and one last burble and thump from the creature put Chell's mind to rest, still looking around as she went to Rosie.

"What are you doing?" Chell finally said, looking at the creature that lay down before them. Although she couldn't quite say it was human-like, Chell felt like they had killed off something that might not have needed being exterminated. An apparatus blipped nearby, the square contraption proving that they had indeed gunned down an intelligent creature. Its head was now splattered against the ground; another massive hole had been shot through its chest as a precaution.

"What's it look like I'm doing?" Rosie snapped, reloading her gun.

"What if it wasn't a threat?" Chell said, pointing at the creature's body.

"And you want to take that risk? Sorry hon, I've seen too much to trust a lick of anything that ain't human." Rosie said, starting back for the highway. "It's us or them. If this one was just a scout, then we sent a message loud and clear; stay the fuck away from our planet."

Although Chell's moral sense wanted to continue the argument, she knew that Rosie was right. The former test subject didn't know anything about this new world and the survivor was the veteran. Chell looked down at the creature's body once again, but turned and followed after Rosie. The two continued in relative silence, trotting down the deceleration ramp and into Mass City. Just like Houghton, the city was a wreck of its former self, though didn't show quite as many signs of rioting as Houghton had. Rosie took a moment to find a map at a gas station, leading the way to where the enrichment center was.

The day was already getting late by the time they made it to the main building, Chell's brow furrowing when it finally came into view. Here she was again, standing on the steps of the threshold of the science center. It wasn't quite as pristine now; the walls caved in and partially scorched, plants and vines taking a stranglehold on the structure. Although Rosie had made a recommendation to set up camp and explore tomorrow, Chell refused. She knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep until she knew if this trip had been a waste or not.

"Well, I told you I looked around everything in the building, even went down into the second and third levels of the basement. Didn't find a thing." Rosie sighed as they entered the building, shining her lantern. "The only thing I can think of is dropping down the elevator shaft, because I'll tell you what, they go down way further than two or three floors."

"And how am I supposed to get up again?" Chell asked.

"I can find a rope while you're explorin', pull ya back up." Rosie said. "In fact, why don't I do that first? Come on, we can explore this place later."

Chell was getting the distinct feeling that Rosie wasn't quite as fond of this idea as she had put on earlier, and she had to admit that she wasn't feeling all that bold about it either. "No, the longer I put it off, the less likely I am to go through with it." Chell finally said, turning and looking to Rosie. "Just drop the rope down when you've found some, I'll try to call up when I'm back and you can pull me out. No problem."

"And what about our new followers?" Rosie said, rummaging through and finding a flash light for her second in command.

"We'll just have to pull 'em up one by one," Chell said and turned the flash light on, grinning a bit. "Huh, we didn't die."

"Pardon?" Rosie said.

"Just a bit of pre-exploration humor." Chell said and went to the edge of the elevator shaft, shining the light down the hole. It seemed like everything was fairly clear, although the light didn't shine down far enough to see the bottom.

"Any last words?" Rosie said as Chell sized up the drop.

"Yeah," Chell said, already feeling sick at the thought of returning to those chambers once again. She looked Rosie dead in the eye, speaking in a very serious tone. "...so long and thanks for the cake."

Rosie repeated the words soundlessly, but before she could question Chell about them, the former test subject leapt into the shaft and vanished out of sight. Chell was glad that whoever had designed the long fall boots had the common sense to make them weighted, the test subject continuing in a straight path down the shaft at near free fall speed. She held her arms as close to her body as possible, wanting to avoid getting scratched by anything that may be protruding from the walls.

Finally, Chell crashed through the top of the elevator car and hit the ground, shoving the door open with quite a bit of effort. She coughed from the dust that had been disturbed from its spot, waving a bandage wrapped arm to clear the dust. She began to amble forward, realizing that was a door that shut the elevator cars off from the facility. Although there had once been an electronic lock on it, Chell was able to push open the door, only able to assume that the lock had deactivated and rotted away with time. Chell clicked the flashlight off as she entered the lesser maintained portion of the facility, a sea of what she could only assume was some sort of acid covered most of the ground in the first room. Although a white wall in the distance seemed to announce an easy crossing, Chell's lack of a portal gun left her rather stuck. It was too dangerous, getting all the way across the room. She turned to see that a rope was let down the shaft she had just some from, beckoning her to forget about this terrible place and simply live out her life, letting the human race go out with her and Rosie.

/Yes, that's right. Go back to your adopted mother. Because that's what you are. Adopted./ Chell could imagine GLaDOS's response now. /You'll do back flips just to spite me, but can't even solve one little challenge to save your own race. Pity./

Chell's eyes narrowed in determination, even the imaginary mocking of the AI enough to motivate her. She didn't come all this way to turn tail now. Chell took a breath, looking around her surroundings. Alright, there was a downed bridge that looked like it was just too far to jump. With that in mind, she began to survey the tiled land mass she was now on, the sight of a metal barrel half buried in the ground seemed to scream 'stepping stone'. An able grin pulled at the former test subject's features as she dug out the barrel and hugged it to her chest, hobbling over to the edge of the acid lake. She took another breath, face reddening from the effort in hoisting along the hefty barrel. She managed to bend her legs a bit and throw herself into a heave, managing to get the barrel a good four feet away from the 'shore'. A triumphant grin crossed her features, but was short lived as the barrel began to dissolve in a rising plume of smoke. Chell took off at a run and stepped on the barrel, just managing to make it to the metal bridge.

Unfortunately, the structure wasn't as sound as she had first thought, the frame beginning to groan and give way under her weight. Not taking a moment to think, Chell began to run, the bridge beginning a slow decent into the acid lake. She was so close; she just had to...JUMP!

The former test subject sprung just in time for the bridge's ultimate collapse, clinging to the rungs of a ladder that led to the platform that had taunted her so soon before. Chell began to climb up the ladder and onto the platform, pushing open the next door. From there, it was a fairly easy walk going across the suspended bridges until she came upon a working elevator to the better maintained portion of the facility. After crossing a liberation field, the lights began to flicker on in the chamber and activating the lift. Chell cringed when the all too familiar voice echoed over the PA system.

"Hello, and welcome to the Aperture Computer Automated..." GLaDOS began to drone, but then was silent for a moment, realizing who it was. "...oh. It's you."

Chell didn't seem to react to the prod at her, the construct's auto-tuned voice indicating disappointment.

"I have to say that this is a surprise." GLaDOS continued. "Not one of the good surprises, with confetti. No, it's more of an unpleasant surprise, like being turned into a potato."

Still no verbal response from the former test subject.

"I so graciously release you and you come back in less than a week," GLaDOS said. "You really are pathetic. The real world too much for you?"

Chell remained silent, stepping onto the elevator. GLaDOS was more than used to this odd form of the cold shoulder, adjusting the lift to come to her lair.

"No. Don't say a word. I'd really, really like to speak with you face to face." GLaDOS said, the elevator chugging to life. Well, this was it. The moment of truth. Chell had to admit, now that she was actually back and going to speak with GLaDOS, that she had no plan whatsoever. What had she thought she was going to do? Demand that GLaDOS reanimate the humans that may or may not still remain in stasis? Chell wanted to smack herself in the head for rushing this so quickly. Lovely, she was going to meet up with a homicidal, vengeful AI with no plan, portal gun or even an idea on what she was going to request. As the elevator came to a halt, Chell straightened up and tried to appear as confident as possible. Although she had a solid visage of her normal determination and pride, her mind was a flurry of activity, trying to determine the best route of action, speech and situations that may come of it all. "...it's been a long time. No wait, it hasn't."

Chell didn't say a word as she approached the AI, looking up and staring her in the optic.

"I have to say, I didn't think it was possible," GLaDOS said, swiveling around and examining the former test subject. "You seemed to have found an outfit that even further magnifies your gracious figure. Congratulations."

Chell's brows furrowed at the insult, but she still remained silent.

"Most people would be offended at having a gift being returned to them so quickly, that gift being your freedom." GLaDOS continued, drawing back. "But luckily I'm not easily offended. Unlike you, who seems to go into a murderous rage with no real reason."

Alright, Chell could tell that this could go on for quite some time if she let GLaDOS continue to speak her mind.

"I need a favor," Chell said aloud, her arms straight at her sides and feet planted firmly on the ground. If GLaDOS had an expression, it certainly would have been surprised. Chell noted the quick dilation of the AI's optic and quick jerk of machinery, but GLaDOS continued to act as though nothing had happened.

"...funny, for a second there I thought I heard you talk." GLaDOS said, not looking very amused.

"I did." Chell said, staying perfectly still. "I need a favor."

"Hm. When I needed a simple answer, you couldn't seem to find your voice for the /life/ of you," GLaDOS noted idly. "But now that you're the one that needs something, you seem to be chattier than a...[metaphor aborted]."

Chell quirked a brow at GLaDOS's unusual way to end a sentiment, but took a breath and began to speak again.

"I need to know where the long term cold storage is." Chell said.

"...and why would I tell you that?"

"Because I'm sure if I don't wake them up now, it might be too late." Chell replied, not backing down.

"And why should I care?"

That was a really good question. After the deletion of Caroline, any hope of appealing to her sentimental side would certainly go south.

"Because otherwise I'll be making myself comfortable right here. I'm not leaving until I get an answer." Chell said boldly. Of course, she didn't take the neurotoxin into account, which was a bit too far ahead in the planning phase. Although GLaDOS was all too aware of the advantage she held, it was almost funny seeing Chell sit down cross-legged on the floor like a petulant child. Keyword being almost.

"You really are something. I'm sure you of all people know how a certain core's incompetence wiped out all the humans in the relaxation chambers." GLaDOS said, staring at Chell.

"But those were short term stasis units, weren't they? Weren't there more long term ones?" Chell said in reply. GLaDOS paused a moment, shaking her head.

"If there are, they aren't in my department." GLaDOS said, beginning to formulate a plan. Chell rolled her hand, silently willing the construct to continue her sentence. However, GLaDOS remained silent.

"What do you mean 'not your department'?" Chell finally asked.

"As in it would be in another part of the enrichment center that I don't have control over or contact with." GLaDOS finally obliged.

"And what department would that be?" Chell said.

"The Biotechnology department." GLaDOS said.

"Okay, so how do I get there?" Chell said, standing up.

"You don't."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Chell said with a frown.

"Unless you have a portal gun. Which you don't. Because you dropped it. In space." GLaDOS said, emphasizing every sentence with a rather irritated nod of her head. "However."

"...however?"

"I have two constructs that have been testing co-operative portal technology." GLaDOS said. "And I would be so generous as to let them accompany you. As long as they come back to me in one piece."

"And...?"

"And what?"

"What else? What's in it for you?" Chell said in an accusatory tone.

"I am baffled. Suggesting that I, of all people, would want anything from you." GLaDOS said, her body drawing back as though repulsed by the idea. However, she did loosen up after a moment, a black box with a few prongs sticking out tumbling from a product dispensing chute in the wall and onto the floor. "Well, since you're offering. Take this relay box and plug it into the communication's hub when you get there. I really don't like things going on in /any/ part of the enrichment center without me knowing."

Chell should have known. But it wasn't exactly a difficult request, so the former test subject picked up the relay box and nodded, affirming that she would complete the task that had been given to her. It was just then that the elevator chugged to life again, shooting upwards and out of sight.

"Oh good, it seems that Orange and Blue have finished their latest test." GLaDOS said, the elevator beginning to descend once again. As the two constructs stepped off the elevator and entered the room they had been brought to, GLaDOS gave them a quick look over. "And without blowing themselves up this time around. Impressive."

By the sound of it, it didn't seem that these two had a sparkling track record for testing, but seemed to be well enough as they approached. Chell tucked the relay box under her arm and waved to the two. Funny design for the two of them, Chell had to admit. Blue returned the wave with an almost innocent eagerness, throwing his whole body into the motion whereas Orange was more apprehensive, but waved in return nonetheless. GLaDOS cleared her throat to get everyone's attention, looking down upon the two constructs.

"Orange, Blue. Meet former test subject." GLaDOS introduced. "Former test subject, Orange and Blue. You two will be accompanying this human to the Biotechnology Department of the Enrichment Center. You are to observe her problem solving skills for later use. You will be tested on this. You are also to disregard any murder related activity that she will no doubt engage in. You will not be tested on these skills, so observing them is completely pointless. Understood?"

Boy, GLaDOS really was sore about the whole murder thing, wasn't she?

The two constructs nodded in unison once GLaDOS had given her instructions, nodding towards the lift.

"Very good. I wish you two the best of luck." GLaDOS said to P-Body and Atlas, glimpsing at Chell for a moment. "...I wish you Karmic relief."

Which was another phrase for 'go jump in a pit and die'. Alright, she got it. Chell had nothing more to say to GLaDOS and walked over to the elevator, the two constructs tagging along like a pair of metallic puppies. As Chell waited for them to enter, she realized what a fitting comparison it was, the rounded robot stumbling a bit as he hopped into the elevator while the thinner one seemed to try moving with more grace. Although GLaDOS had called them Orange and Blue, she noticed two very different titles stamped onto their backs. Sort of like her being introduced as 'test subject'.

"P-Body and Atlas?" Chell finally said, deciding that these two hadn't done anything thus far to incur her normally bitter silence. The two constructs perked, seeming to recognize those words as their names. "...are those your names?"

The round robot's optic widened in astonishment, as though to say "How did YOU know that?" and proceeded to nod vigorously. The more slender robot rolled an optic at Atlas's antics, nudging him and then tossing his head at the now open door. It seemed they were both pretty efficient in non-verbal communication as they strolled out of the elevator side by side, both surveying the area with a keen eye.

"P-Body and Atlas." Chell murmured again, finding the names rather silly. Then again, in a facility that produced something as insane as the space core, she wouldn't have expected anything less from Aperture. Although GLaDOS had talked down to them, the two constructs seemed fairly efficient in their problem solving skills. Chell did have to direct their attention to where they were trying to get to, but after that, they seemed fairly adept at communicating portal placement, getting one another's attention and getting around obstacles. After a bit of doing her own observing, she couldn't help but think of GLaDOS and Wheatley; the slender orange robot seemed to do most of the planning, pointing and non-verbal ordering around, while the round blue robot seemed to get distracted by all the new things in these unorthodox test chambers. Chell chuckled a bit as the two seemed to get into an argument after becoming stuck for quite some time, the two pushing each other back and forth with a series of blips, squeaks and heated whirs. Chell put her fingers in her mouth and whistled to get their attention, pointing to an obscure surface that could support a portal. The two constructs looked at the surface, then the human and then one another, Atlas taking aim and putting a gateway onto said surface. They continued on as though nothing had happened.

Chell had lost track of time, but finally came to a sealed off portion, the constructs hitting the valve override buttons. The hiss of the seal being broken filled the air, revealing a glass wall into a hospital-like environment. Chell motioned the two over, looking at the sign that hung above the secured double doors. 'Welcome to the Aperture Biotechnology Department: Enjoy Your Stay'. Why did that sound so creepy? The former test subject pushed away the sinking feeling in her stomach, shoving the door open and ushering the two constructs in.

As they strolled into the once pristine waiting room, the lights kicked on and the electronics seemed to hum to life. An automated message began to play, the friendly voice of a male announcer coming over the PA.

"Hello patient and welcome to the Aperture Science Biotechnology and Medical wing! If you are here for test related illness, please proceed down the hall, following the black line. If you are here for test related injury, please proceed down the hall following the green line. If you're taking advantage of becoming a test subject, sit back in our waiting room and relax knowing that you will soon be working for one of the safest enrichment centers around!"

Although Chell highly doubted the authenticity of that statement, she decided to start walking along the black line to begin exploring the area. P-Body and Atlas both seemed less gung ho than before, hanging back in the waiting room.

"Well aren't you just a handful of eager beavers!"

The shrill call of a female voice caused Chell to jump in surprise, running back to the waiting room where the call had come from. A magenta-eyed personality core suspended from a management rail looked at them from above, bobbing a bit as she looked the group over. She jumped a bit when Chell came back onto the scene. "Whoop! There you are!" she tittered; her voice was high-pitched, grating and perky. Chell already knew she was going to dislike this core.

"Welcome to our medical ward, I'll be your nurse today." she continued, examining the human member of the party. "My name is Ratchet. What seems to be the problem?"  
> <p>


	6. Explain!

Disclaimer: Valve owns all respective characters and trademarks.

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Author's Note: A special thanks goes out to everyone who had taken time to review this story on , including but not limited to Mystic777 -especially you because you've reviewed every single chapter-, Yunyin, Ongaku, Mautau25 -reviewed almost every single chapter-, GreatZero and FoxHound47. Thanks guys, your feedback is what keeps me going!

And now, without further ado, chapter 6!

~magefeathers

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Chapter 6: Explain!

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Chell fumbled a bit in surprise as Ratchet propelled herself forward on her management rail quite suddenly, intruding upon the former test subject's personal space. Chell put her hands up as though to create a barrier between her and the construct, beginning to answer her questions. "There's no problem. We just need to know where the long term cold storage is." the former test subject replied to the core's query. However, the nurse didn't seem satisfied, bobbing up and down on her rail again.

"No problem? Oh, I think there is." Ratchet replied in a dire tone, a small hole opening up in her front. "Say 'ah'."

"What? No!" Chell replied, shaking her head. Although the test subject didn't comply with the demand, Ratchet still shot a thermometer out of the dispensary hole that had opened up, which struck Chell in the eye and hit the ground. "Ow!"

"See? Your temperature is so high that the thermometer exploded! And look, your eye's all red too. Must be a case of red eye." Nurse Ratchet said in a professional tone.

"Pink eye," Chell corrected with a grumble, rubbing her eye.

"Ah-ha! Only a true sufferer of pink eye would know that." Nurse Ratchet said, optic narrowing suspiciously. Chell was already becoming rather annoyed with the core's prattling, taking a breath and deciding that she had to take things slowly.

"No, no pink eye." Chell replied, shaking her head. "But really, thank you for your concern."

"Oh, you're really quite welcome dearie." Ratchet tittered, bobbing excitedly. Chell forced a smile, though inwardly was considering that 'murderous rage' thing that GLaDOS had been referencing earlier. Ratchet jerked suddenly as though she remembered something, looking back down on the human. "Oh, the long term storage? That's what you came here for?"

"Yeah," Chell said with a nod, not wanting to show too much enthusiasm for fear of exciting the jittery little core more than she already was. "Is it around here?"

"It is!" Ratchet said with a nod, but then looked back down. "But I'm afraid you can't go back there. Authorized personnel only. However, if you bring me the personality cores, we here in the Aperture Biotechnology Department will do our best to match the right core with the right host."

Chell blinked, tilting her head to indicate her confusion.

"You...did bring me some cores, didn't you?" Ratchet said, as though it was the simplest thing in the entire world. Chell considered a moment, but then shook her head. "Well then how do you expect me to wake the humans up out of cold storage silly?"

"I really don't see what personality cores have to do with reanimating humans in suspended animation." Chell replied rather bluntly. Ratchet didn't seem too enthralled with Chell's questioning, but rolled an optic and gave a yell.

"ORDERLY!" Nurse Ratchet screeched, a grey eyed core whizzing by on an adjacent management rail. Chell tensed, getting ready to run, but was pleasantly surprised by Ratchet's softening of her tone. "Can you bring up the brain diagram and the stasis slides?"

"Yessum."

With that, the grey eyed core chugged past Ratchet, projecting a rather simple drawing of the human brain onto the wall. Ratchet squinted a moment, a red dot appearing on the wall that indicated she was working a laser pointer. "There we are! I'm surprised that still works honestly. Okay, so here we have the human brain. Everyone, say hello brain!"

Chell didn't say a word, but P-Body and Atlas waved to the image on the wall as they stood on either side of the former test subject.

"Good. Now, when a body is put into long term cold storage, certain portions of the brain can no longer sustain higher thinking. The frontal lobe for example and even emotional centers are often damaged in the freezing process." Ratchet explained, emphasizing what she believed were important words, but only proved to make Chell believe that the core thought she was talking to a bunch of morons. "A lot of times, humans who are frozen are severely brain damaged, the only things that function reliably after being thawed is the reptilian part of the brain. This part right here that controls breathing and heartbeat. Because everyone knows that humans evolved from reptiles."

P-Body and Atlas both made an 'ooooo' sort of sound, Chell being too flustered to want to correct the nurse.

"Seeing this problem, Aperture equipped all fifty men and fifty women in our cold storage with core interface hardware." Ratchet said, the slide changing to an image of an odd piece of equipment. The only thing that Chell could really compare it to would be something out of a sci-fi movie, a metallic pit anchored onto the human's back and connected to the spinal column and lower brain. Chell shuddered, seeing what Ratchet had meant by 'host'. "With this, a qualified professional can attach the personality core, which will then take over the higher thinking functions of the human host and thus reanimate the human properly."

"...so, what you're trying to say is that this can't be done unless we have a personality core to plug into the body?" Chell said.

"That's right," Ratchet replied. Chell frowned as she began to contemplate exactly what that meant, weighing the communication relay box in her hands. Were there any other cores in storage? It didn't seem like Ratchet had any spares hovering around the biotechnology department, considering that the nurse seemed rather eager to continue with the procedure. Which meant Chell would have to talk to GLaDOS again. "...you sure you're feeling well?"

"Yeah, thanks." Chell replied with a forced smile. "I think we're going to go. We'll be back."

"Oh, goodie goodie good!" Ratchet chirped and began to back up on her rail. "I'll start working on thawing procedures and have it ready for your return!"

The former test subject gave a nod.

"Alright, that sounds like a good plan." Chell replied, waving a bit as the Orderly Core turned off the projection and began wheeling away, the Nurse Core rolling after with a certain bounciness. P-Body and Atlas waved good bye to the new faces as well, Atlas continuing to wave long after everyone was done, only ceasing after receiving a strange look from Chell and P-Body. Chell held up the black box, looking at the two constructs. "Why don't we go plug this in and head back?"

Both of the robots nodded, splitting up to cover more ground in search of the communication hub. Eventually, P-Body trilled and waved to Chell, pointing happily to a large metal box hooked up to the wall. Although it took the former test subject a few moments of searching to locate a way to plug in the black box, Chell got it properly attached and squared away. P-Body was watching Chell carefully, moving back once she seemed like she was done. Chell gave a thumbs up and began walking towards the exit once again, P-Body beeping impatiently at Atlas to get his attention away from the chair he was so fondly investigating. The round bodied robot looked up in surprise, scuttling over to the other two and saluting. Chell tried not to laugh, starting to walk back in the direction that they had come.

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"Back so soon?"

Chell was the first to step off the lift and into the viewing range of the construct; GLaDOS leaning over a bit to make sure P-Body and Atlas had gotten back in one piece as well. She didn't exactly have the patience for performing any repair jobs at the moment, especially something that had suffered at the hands of the former test subject. After the trio stood before her, GLaDOS seemed amused by the fact she didn't see any other humans that were now tagging along.

"So, it looks like you failed at finding the cold storage." GLaDOS said in a condescending tone. "So how does it feel? Knowing that you're the last part of a dead race? ...I have half a mind to simply put you out of your misery."

"We did find it," Chell said in bitter tone, obviously feeling the same spite that the construct seemed to have towards her. The two testing robots backed away from Chell a bit, not wanting to get in the way if GLaDOS took a mind to crush her with a metallic pincer. However daunting the ruler of the testing chambers was, Chell wasn't about to back down so easily, knowing what had to be done. "And we plugged in that box, just like you wanted. Now I need another favor."

"Me, me, me. That's all I'm hearing out of your mouth." GLaDOS said with a roll of her optic, jerking forward in an accusatory way at the end of her sentence.

"I need personality cores to wake up the humans in cold storage. The core in charge said that the people frozen can't be reanimated unless they have something to control their higher brain functions." Chell explained, once again ignoring the pokes at her demands.

"If the core in charge is so concerned about the humans, then why doesn't she just plug herself into one?" GLaDOS asked flatly. That was certainly a good question, but one that Chell could easily counter.

"Because she's the only one that's qualified to 'match the right core with the right host'," Chell said, using Ratchet's words against GLaDOS. GLaDOS would have to work on breaking through the electronic walls that prevented her from accessing the biotechnology department, having a hard time believing this statement. But no matter.

"I feel like I'm repeating myself when I ask why should I care." GLaDOS said. This question was a bit trickier, but it had a sound of finality to it that told the former test subject that GLaDOS was wearing short on patience. The test subject had to come up with an idea, make an offer. It didn't seem like there were many personality cores that were lying around after the near melt-down the facility had experienced only a week earlier. There were four that Chell could only assume were intact, but drifting about in space...God, it could take them forever to find. Chell then remembered; the portal gun. That had been sucked out into space as well. Surely an AI that is now trapped in an eternal need to test the technology would care somewhat about the gun's disappearance. GLaDOS hadn't mentioned it once and seemed content with the two new robots to satiate her curiosity in the use of the technology. But it was worth a shot.

"Well, considering a very expensive piece of equipment was lost along with four personality cores, I'd say that's a reason to care." Chell said, GLaDOS's optic lighting up as though having a realization. It seemed that Chell had struck a circuit, though wasn't going to count her chickens just yet.

"...go on." GLaDOS said, irritated by the girl's silence. Chell had to think of an idea and fast.

"Well, if you can seal off the elevator room, it can work as an airlock." Chell said, pointing to the elevator room and then up at the sky. "We shoot a portal on the moon just like we did before; Orange and Blue go into our 'airlock' and once that's isolated, make another portal to the surface. They sift around and see if they can find the gun and, if they so happen to find the personality cores then so be it."

GLaDOS really hated to hear this girl talk, but her idea did make quite a bit of sense. Except for one thing.

"What's the point of having the gun if I don't have anyone to test it?" GLaDOS said drolly. Unfortunately, Chell's mind was working a bit too quickly and especially in high pressure situations tended to forego the 'think about it for a second' phase, and jump directly to the 'say/do something' phase.

"Well, if you find it, then you'll have me and four other humans to test it with," Chell blurted. Although GLaDOS seemed pleased by the offer, Chell immediately wished she had the situational leeway to punch herself in the face for making such a dumb offer. Did she really just volunteer herself for another period of testing? Did she really just volunteer the four other humans for testing? Amidst her mental beat down, GLaDOS began to speak again.

"Interesting. Although I have to admit I was more than glad to get rid of you, there are quite a few other variables that I can now include in my data collection." GLaDOS mused. "For example, comparing your performance against theirs." GLaDOS said, indicating the testing duo with a nod. Chell really didn't like the vague sense of excitement that was now apparent in the construct s voice as she spoke. "...I think I like this idea very much. I'd applaud you, but that feature no longer seems to work. So, instead, I will extend you a very heartfelt 'good job'. Here I go. Good job."

Before Chell could even make any other guidelines to negotiate for a release, GLaDOS began to outline the plan to P-Body and Atlas, the elevator vanishing down the chute as the small elevator room was sealed off. Atlas pointed an arm at the moon above, aiming through a small portion of the ceiling that had yet to be repaired, and shot a portal. After a few moments of waiting, the two began to wander into the newly created airlock after GLaDOS deactivated the liberation field and sealed them into the room with a sliding door. There was a sound of decompressing air, GLaDOS and Chell could only assume that the two were well on their way.

"Well, I hope for /your/ sake they find something." GLaDOS finally sighed, giving Chell a rather hard look. "But in the meantime, we have some catching up to do. Don't we?" 


	7. The Rescue

Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.

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Author's Note: Alright, well I've come to a difficult dilemma. The fact you can't actually talk in space. There's no air to carry sound waves and that bit of logic really drives me mad. But you know what? I am going to use my 'a wizard did it' card. Every writer has one of these sleeved and after years and years of fan fic writing, I have yet to use it. So, if anyone asks why they are able to talk in space, my answer is, and always will be, a wizard did it.

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Chapter 7: The Rescue

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"Space. Space. Space."

"Alright, I think we stopped hearing you after the thousandth time you said that mate."

"Oh. Okay. SPACE. SPACE. SPPPAAAACE!"

Wheatley couldn't help but groan as the space core decided that the only solution to the problem was to say it even louder now. To be completely honest, the Intelligence Dampening Core was beginning to think that he didn't survive. In his mind, he caused the nuclear meltdown of the Aperture lab's operating systems and in fact died. Where was he now? Where else but Android Hell? It only made sense; Hell didn't exactly have to be fire and brimstone like the humans always made it out to be. What could be worse than sitting in a pile of dust on the moon, listening to the prattling of a mad core with nothing but thoughts of one's own regret to comfort him?

Nothing, in Wheatley's mind there was positively nothing worse.

"Space cores are the number one cause of migraines among Fact Cores."

"Space, in space! I am causing migraines...IN SPACE."

He couldn't help but take in his surroundings, reflecting upon the events of the past eternity. Although they had been floating around in space for a little bit, it seemed that the gravitational pull of the moon had other plans, yanking them onto the surface like so many little meteorites and asteroids. Now, sitting in slowly accumulating piles of moon dust, it didn't seem like there was any end in sight. There was the Fact Sphere and the Space Core nearby, bickering between one another. Then Rick...where was Rick? Wheatley threw his weight into turning himself around, now a bit worried that they had lost a member. Oh, no. There Rick was. The Adventure Core had taken it upon himself to protect the Portal Gun that had landed nearby, an implement that he was getting...oddly close to. Wheatley's optic brow perked when Rick leaned towards the gun and made the noise of a human sniff.

"What in blazes are you doing?" Wheatley asked, staring at the green eyed core.

"What's it look like I'm doin'?" Rick retorted, seeming a bit defensive.

"It looks like you're pretending to sniff the portal gun." Wheatley said in a flat tone, looking very puzzled by his companion's action.

"So what if I am?" Rick said.

"I really guess it's no trouble," Wheatley admitted. "But /why/ exactly are you pretending to sniff the portal gun?"

"Oh, well." Rick began, using his storytelling voice. It was the sort of tone that told the listener 'grab a chair and make yourself comfortable because we're going to be here awhile'. "It all started when ol' Facty and I were having a conversation. We were talking about some interesting rock or another and before you knew it we got on the topic of women."

"What do rocks have to do with women?" Wheatley interjected with a small shake of his head.

"What don't rocks have to do with women?" Rick replied with a narrowing of his optic. "Can I finish my story?"

"Yes, of course. Go on." Wheatley said.

"Anyhow, before I was so rudely interrupted, we were talking about women. And it turns out that the first step to courting a human woman is to steal and sniff her unmentionables." Rick said, leaning towards Wheatley and lowering his voice, as though sharing some great secret of the universe with the blue eyed core. "Fact Core told me I've been going about it all wrong. Here, I thought you were supposed to compliment 'em and do things for 'em. Nope. Unmentionables."

"Would the portal gun really be considered an 'unmentionable'?" Wheatley said.

"Well, it is a top secret gizmo, isn't it?" Rick said.

"Yeah."

"Wouldn't that make it...unmentionable?"

Wheatley's optic widened at Rick's use of logic, realizing how much sense that made.

"Yup, I'll be courting that fine lady in no time." Rick said, optic rolling up a bit. "Tough luck kid. But, it's probably good that she realized that she could do way better than you."

Wheatley had been nodding as Rick spoke, but came to an abrupt halt when Rick began to insinuate that Wheatley had been trying to put the moves on the test subject.

"Beg pardon?" Wheatley sputtered, narrowing his optic at the green eyed core.

"Oh, come on. Launching you into space, using us to corrupt you to initiate a core transfer...any moron could figure out that's her way of saying it's over." Rick said, not seeming to notice Wheatley's glare. "Don't be sad, there's plenty of other, dumber fish in the sea."

"I am not a moron!" Wheatley snapped, shaking the dust off himself as though to go do something.

"I think you are." Rick said coolly.

"I am not!"

"Hey Space Core, what are you supposed to do?" Rick replied, looking over to the yellow eyed core.

"Space, I'm supposed to do space."

"Right, Space Core does space. Fact Core?" Rick said, glancing over.

"The Fact Core is a dispensary of facts and vast knowledge that is 100% undeniably true."

"Right. And an Adventure Core like me? Most content going on adventures." Rick replied, turning his glance to Wheatley. "Now, huh...let's see. What was your title again?"

The blue eyed core was seething at Rick's drawn out insult and would have been shaking with rage if his workings could permit such a function.

"It's alright if you forgot, I understand." the Adventure Core said in a condescending tone. "Intelligence Dampening Core. That's scientific talk for moron."

"And you are-!" Wheatley began, but his mind drew a blank to a good insult. He needed a real zinger, something to boost his own visage of intelligence and make Rick look like the idiot. What was that word that GLaDOS had called him before? Oh, right! "A tumor! That's what you are, a tumor!"

It seemed that it worked, Rick staring a moment trying to figure out the insult.

"...what's a tumor?" Rick said after a few more moments of mental searching.

"It is another word for moron. Which is what you are." Wheatley said in a proud tone, feeling as though he had won the battle of wits. However, Fact Core had to chime in again and correct the blue eyed sphere.

"A tumor is an over growth of cells in humans, most often associated with the disease syphilis."

"Ha! You don't even know what your own insults mean!" Rick said triumphantly, unable to help but laugh. Adding insult to injury, he continued, "You...you damned...moron!"

"At least I'm not the bloke who's burying his lens in a quantum tunneling device in hopes of catching a lady's attention!" Wheatley bellowed, his sudden broken temper earning silence from the other three cores. "At least I'm not the idiot who thinks she's coming back for us! Because you know what Rick? You know what?"

"What?"

"She's not! She hates us, she bloody hates us!" Wheatley said, the mild curse adding an emphasis to his point. As his sudden bout of annoyance turned anger began to recede, his tone became more sullen, his optic lowering and staring at the ground. "...she hates me. She really, really hates me."

All four of the cores were silent, no one really knowing what to say. Wheatley was the first to pipe up, looking up at the others.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell." he sighed, looking about. "It's my fault we're all here and...Well, we're stuck together. So better make the best of it, yeah?"

There was a small murmur of agreement, but the Space Core didn't seem content with the peace.

"SPACE!" he squealed, a small light a top his head beginning to blink rapidly as the other cores turned to look at him.

"Oh, come on now, really? We're having a moment and you-" Wheatley sighed, noticing the little blinking light. "...what's that on his head?"

"Beats me." Rick said, leaning forward to scrutinize.

"Space, what's that light on your head?" Wheatley asked, Fact Core not seeming to want to chime in for once.

"Space, that is me. Space. Going to get found. In space. Space in space." the yellow eyed core replied, wriggling in place and attempting to shake the dust off himself.

"Found? Found by...?" Rick started, but trailed off as P-Body and Atlas came into view. It seemed that the Space Core's designer had thought it necessary to equip him with a homing device, just in case he was ever lost during an out-of-world journey. This served invaluable as P-Body's own optic blinked while sending out a homing signal, the two testing bots slowly walking over to the four cores. Although P-Body moved with some urgency in collecting up the gun and two cores, Atlas seemed to find it more important to poke at the cores before picking them up, jabbing Rick in the head repeatedly with a finger. "Ow. Ow. Ow. Quit it. Ow. Ow. Stop! Ow. Do that one more time boy!"

Atlas made a sound that would be reminiscent of human laughing after Rick's outburst, scooping up the remaining two cores. P-Body rolled an optic again, pointing his own gun towards the ground and making an end to a self-contained portal back to the machine made airlock. With that, they both hopped through with their prizes in hand for a quick return trip to Earth.

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"And that is how I learned why peanut butter covered fish shaped candy was discontinued." GLaDOS concluded that particular story, nodding to Chell. The former test subject was sitting cross legged nearby, leaning against a wall and listening as GLaDOS spoke, a bit surprised by how well they were getting along. No neurotoxin, no being crushed to death, thrown into an incinerator; nothing. It seemed that GLaDOS was enjoying the primarily one sided conversation as well, but both knew better than to completely trust the other, despite what they had been through when Wheatley took hold of the facilities. It had been several hours since P-Body and Atlas had left, but Chell wasn't all too worried. After all, they had quite a bit of area to cover and Chell would have been completely baffled if they had found the cores in just a few hours.

Right on cue, the airlock whirred open as the atmosphere rushed into the evacuated area with a loud hissing noise. Chell looked up, smiling a bit at seeing that P-Body and Atlas had returned safely with the four cores they had gone searching for.

"Marvelous, magnificent! You are a true lifesaver! I take back everything terrible I've ever said about you and all the bad things I thought about you and may not have said!"

Chell's smile fell rather flat upon hearing the English accented groveling as the testing bots strolled in to present their findings to the master of the facilities, the former test subject not really noticed by the personality cores.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you," Wheatley said quickly, his voice trailing off a bit as Atlas carried him closer to GLaDOS and losing the initial exuberance he had started off with. GLaDOS narrowed an optic at the core, her gaze piercing straight into his circuits. Wheatley would have shivered, but still continued talking nonetheless. "...you're not still mad about the whole turning you into a potato and nearly blowing up the facility thing, are you? No hard feelings, eh?"

Well, this was going to be fun to watch. Although a part of Chell did have some concern for the core, that he would talk himself into a corner and rightly be incinerated by the AI in charge, the other part was still peeved about his attitude about the entire situation. There wasn't a heartfelt apology, no true thanks besides the sniveling that was now spouting out of his gullet. Chell sighed, kneading her eyebrows with a hand as Wheatley continued to talk.

"I will take your glare and silence as a 'yes', that you are in fact still mad. Duly noted." Wheatley replied, cut off by GLaDOS.

"Shut up."

"Right, right. Shutting up."

"First of all, if had been up to me you would still be floating around in space never to grind my gears again." GLaDOS said, looking at the four. "I would tell you to thank /her/, but I doubt you will be grateful for whatever plans she has in store for you."

"Her? Who?" Rick finally piped up, attempting to look. The testing pair turned their bodies a bit so the cores could gaze upon their savior, Chell standing and crossing her arms across her chest. Wheatley visibly flinched, looking between Chell and GLaDOS.

"Plans? What plans?" the Intelligence Dampening core asked nervously. Chell didn't answer the blue eyed core, looking up to GLaDOS.

"Thanks again. You mind if P-Body and Atlas escort me to the Biotechnology Department again?" Chell asked as she picked up the portal gun and turned it on, making sure the triggers and everything were still intact.

"I suppose. If only to hasten the inevitable." GLaDOS said with a dark chuckle.

"I-Inevitable? Plans? Alright, feeling kind of left in the dark here," Wheatley said as Chell took up the Fact Core under her arm. He really, really had a bad feeling about Chell and GLaDOS working together, especially after what he had done to them both. Although there was certainly a feeling of regret, a need to apologize, it was overwhelmed by the panic that was taking hold as Chell grabbed him by the rail and set him in a netting bag. She looked to Atlas as he took the bag containing the Intelligence Dampening Core, giving him some directions.

"There, that should make it easier to carry him," Chell said, satisfied. "Now, don't drag him too much."

"Oh, well that's nice of-"

"You'll rip the bag. But if he just happens to get bounced or hit around a bit, that's alright." Chell said, handing the Fact Core to P-Body and picking up Rick.

"What! No, no! Don't do that!"

"Alright, I think we're all set." Chell said, ignoring the blue eyed core's pleas. As they left GLaDOS's chamber, Rick piped up.

"Well, on another adventure. Glad you did the smart thing and ditched the moron." Rick said, Wheatley too tangled in his own thoughts to make a retort. "But now you got me baby. And I'll have you know that I've already sniffed your unmentionables."

Chell didn't speak a word, but conveyed her sense of disgust with a short glare. She then promptly went to Atlas, opened up the netted bag and roughly dropped Rick on top of Wheatley.

"Ow!"

"Hey, watch it!"

"Forget what I said; drag this bag the whole damn way there." Chell instructed. "Hopefully the bag'll rip while we're jumping over the acid pits." 


	8. Internal Monologue

Disclaimer: All respective characters belong to Valve.

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Author's Note: Yeah, I dropped the other disclaimer, felt like a serious change of pace. Of seriousness. Unlike the last chapter which was actually rather silly. But then, that's why we love Portal, right? For all its jokes and meme-worthy qualities.

Also, this has nothing to do with fan fiction, but I feel the need to announce that I've finally got my etsy website up and running. So if you want to check out some cute stuffed animals made by yours truly, you can go to .com

Enjoy!

~mage

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Chapter 8: Internal Monologue

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It seemed that the trip back to the Biotechnology wing was quite a bit shorter than it had been previously, the trio of travelers now having a better feel of the path before them. Besides the occasional 'ow' and complaint from Wheatley and Rick, it was a fairly quiet journey, even the Space Core keeping his ramblings to a low mumble. Despite Chell's previous talkativeness, it looked as though she was resuming her more usual bitter silence. As they walked through the glass double doors, the cores began to take in their new surroundings, Rick and Wheatley whispering between each other.

"This doesn't look familiar, what is this place?" Rick asked in a loud whisper, his green eyed optic watching as Chell strolled to the front desk and tapped on a small 'call for service' bell.

"No idea." Wheatley admitted quietly.

"You were the head honcho of the facilities for a while, weren't ya? You're supposed to know this stuff," Rick said, his tone becoming a bit more accusing. Wheatley's brow furrowed.

"Well, let's just say I wasn't very good at it." Wheatley said, optic snapping upwards as Ratchet whizzed into the lobby on her management rail. "Who's that?"

"Beats me." Rick said, narrowing his eye.

"Oh, goodie goodie good!" the Nurse Core chirped, two little mechanical arms unfurling themselves from her sides. "You can hand them over; I've got everything all ready."

P-Body was the first to pass off his core to the medical professionals, the Space Core seeming rather excited about whatever was going to happen.

"Oh, hey lady. Lady!"

"Yes?" Ratchet asked as she gripped the Space Core by his handle.

"Space."

Ratchet tittered as she began carrying him off.

"Of course dear," she said, not really caring about the Space Core's babbling. "Orderly? Go grab another one and bring them to the operating room."

"Yessum." the Orderly replied and wheeled down his own rail. Chell strolled over to where the Orderly could grab the Fact Core from her, the pink eyed core blinking a bit as he started to get carried off.

"Hospitals are breeding grounds for several antibiotic immune viruses, fungi and bacteria." he began to prattle, disappearing down the hall with the Orderly Core.

"Looks like we're next mate," Wheatley said with a small gulp, Chell taking the netted bag away from Atlas and opening it up.

"Alright, off on another adventure!" Rick said bravely as the former test subject picked him up, holding him by the handle. "Listen, if I don't make it back I just want you to know...that you are one fine lady."

The former test subject kept up her visage of silence, seeming to ignore Rick's compliment. As Ratchet came rolling back, Chell offered up the Adventure Core who was promptly grabbed up and carted off by the Nurse. Wheatley glanced up at Chell as he was hoisted out of the bag. The Orderly Core was making his way back into the waiting room, Wheatley beginning to realize that he might not be back. He had no idea what the former test subject was offering them up to and he was already pushing his luck getting this second chance in making amends. Wheatley cleared his throat, trying to form a logical sentence out of his rushing thoughts.

"Alright, Chell. I know that this probably going to sound really forced given the current situation, but if I don't say it now I might not have a chance to say it again," Wheatley began to say hurriedly, the former test subject beginning to lift him up for the Orderly to take. Wheatley's tone of urgency only seemed to increase when the grey eyed core gripped his handles and began to tug him away from Chell. "I'm sorry, I really truly am."

Chell's expression changed from one of steely determination to one that was much less harsh. Wheatley couldn't quite read it, staring a moment before the Orderly yanked him away. Regret? Maybe a tint of sadness? Maybe he was just imagining it. "I...probably deserve whatever terrible thing you're sending us to, so...no hard feelings." Wheatley called, though his own voice was wavering a bit. Who was he kidding? He was hoping that Chell would grab him away and prevent whatever experiments they were surely being shipped off to endure, but didn't say anything else as he was carted off. Before the Orderly rounded the corner, Chell began to wave to him.

"...good luck," Chell said, though probably not loud enough to be heard as the last two cores vanished down the hallway. Chell sighed, beginning to think that she had done something terribly wrong. But, before she could really dwell too much on the moral repercussions of her latest venture, the crash of something falling over snapped her from her thoughts. Chell went to the source of the sound in the waiting room, finding the testing robots entertaining themselves in the test subject's absence. Between P-Body and Atlas was a pile of chairs that had apparently fallen over, the orange testing bot giving a series of irritated beeps and pointing at the chairs. Atlas promptly got to action, beginning to stack the chairs in a pyramid fashion once again. P-Body nodded once the tower was complete, pointing to the wall and giving a whir. Atlas saluted and took aim, shooting a purple portal in the pinged area. He then took aim again, completing the other end above said tower and P-Body picking up another chair from nearby. Chell watched in confusion as P-Body strolled over to the purple portal, aiming a moment and then hucking the chair through the portal. The projectile seat went through the portal and shot out of the ceiling, crashing down on top of the pyramid and sending the stacked chairs flying. Chell couldn't help but laugh as the two flailed their arms in victory, beginning to stack up the chairs again.

"You guys," Chell called to get their attention, setting the hand held portal device off to the side. "You two can go back to the testing chambers if you want. I can make it back on my own."

P-Body and Atlas looked to one another and back to Chell, heading for the glass doors. However, Atlas held the door open for P-Body and didn't budge afterwards, looking to Chell expectantly. The former test subject stayed glued in place, the blue bot waving for her to follow. Chell shook her head, making a shooing motion with her hands from near the receptionist desk. Atlas didn't look too happy, but allowed the door to close. He waved to Chell and continued following after P-Body, who was trilling and blipping for his comrade to follow. After the two had finally gone, Chell wandered over to a seat in the dust covered waiting room and began poking through the magazines. Science Today, Highlights for Kids, Science for Kids, Highlights Today...not really anything worth reading.

She sat down and let her mind wander, first thinking about how long the whole thing would take. Was Nurse Ratchet going to just plug the core into the interface hardware? If so, it would be a quick procedure, but really that seemed like it would be awkward to have an entire core sticking out of one's back. She mulled over that thought for a few moments before going onto the next, realizing she probably needed to hash out a plan for future action.

Now, from a moral standpoint, she should return to GLaDOS with the four awakened humans in order to begin an endless cycle of testing with no probable end in sight. After all, she did give her word. ...then again, this was GLaDOS she was talking about and really anything concerning the AI took morals out of the argument. Maybe Chell could find another way of exiting the Biotechnology department, leading to the surface. Chell stood; deciding now would be an opportune time to explore. As she exited the waiting room, the Orderly Core came whizzing down his management rail and cleared his throat. Chell looked up, brows furrowed in a questioning way.

The Orderly pointed to the seats, the former test subject not seeming too happy about the non-verbal command. However, she took a seat again and crossed her arms, glancing back up at the core. Neither one spoke a word, the Orderly Core not budging from the place that he had parked himself at. Great, so now Chell was forced to find something to do. She picked up a copy of Science Today, an issue that had been outdated even before Chell's century long absence from the world of the living. Chell yawned, flipping through the pages as she settled back in the plastic waiting room chair. Huh, even in a science magazine, it seemed like half of the pages were advertising something. She had a difficult time focusing on the text, but flipped through the pages anyways, taking some time to look at the pictures.

What seemed like a few moments of resting her eyes had apparently been a long time, the former test subject being jolted awake by another projectile thermometer shot from above.

"Oh good, you're awake," Nurse Ratchet said with a small wave from above. "I just wanted to let you know that the procedure was a success for three of them."

Chell's heart skipped a beat; did one of them not make it? Chell mouthed wordlessly, unable to find her voice at the moment. However, the Orderly Core approached and dangled the Space Core in front of her. He was prattling on, pausing after being dropped into Chell's arms and continuing.

"There are times when a core is just too...er...buggy to be safely connected to the interface hardware," Nurse Ratchet explained. "But the others were hooked up, no problem. They should be waking up any time now."

Holding the Space Core under one arm and grabbing the portal gun in the other, Chell nodded a bit, following Ratchet as she started down the hallway.

"Here, I'll take you to the recovery room," she said as she made another turn, Chell following after quietly. "Now, just to warn you that this is a big change for all of them. Try to be...open minded, okay?"

Chell gave a nod to show that she understood, stopping when the Nurse Core pointed to a door. "They're right through here. I have some reports I have to file away, but hit the 'Assistance' button if you need me, okay dear?" Ratchet explained, receiving another nod from Chell. "Great! Well, enjoy your stay and I'll be on to check on everyone in a little bit."

The former test subject took a moment to process that statement; what did she mean by 'stay'? Chell opened her mouth to voice her concern, but Nurse Ratchet had already made a hasty retreat. Chell shrugged a bit and pushed open the indicated door, the Space Core's babbling was the only sound as she entered the room. It was a fairly typical looking hospital set up; four beds with white sheets and blankets, with sterile white walls, a pristinely polished floor and a single painting of a meadow on the wall. Chell set the Space Core on the plastic chair near the door and stared at the painting for a moment.

"...ugh...what in blazes...?"

Well, it seemed one of them was up. Chell glanced away from the picture to see one of them sit up in his bed. "Wh-where am I? I-why can't I see?" the former Intelligence Dampening Core said blue eyes wide in panic. Chell stared, surprised by how much Wheatley's voice and accent had carried on to his 'host', the former test subject going to help him out. He flinched away from the formless blob that was approaching him, arms instinctively going up to protect himself. "Stay back! I have a flashlight and-arms! I...have arms? ...stay back!"

Chell was worried about his not being able to see comment, but noticed a pair of glasses on his nightstand. She grabbed them up and unfolded them, reaching forward to place them on his face. However, Wheatley seemed to have other plans, such as kicking back in a panic and promptly falling off the other side of the bed. Chell gasped and put the glasses back down, running around the other side to go make sure he hadn't hurt himself. After all, she had no idea how durable the interface hardware was and the last thing she wanted to be responsible for was breaking someone's external brain. Wheatley had fallen on his rump and didn't appear too damaged by the fall, sitting on the floor with his eyes shut.

"Alright, alright. Trying to figure out what went on. Last thing I remember was that Nurse putting me in sleep mode...magnets, there must have been magnets involved. This is not happening, simply a terrible, terrible magnet trip." Wheatley began to mumble, trying to rationalize what was going on as he sat on the floor, hands clasped over his face. "They warned us about those in core orientation. Magnet madness. I've been clean this whole time, had a lot of friends that tried 'em."

"...you okay down there?" Chell finally said with a chuckle, grabbing up his glasses again and coming around the bed. It didn't seem that Rick or the Fact Core were awake just yet, the former test subject knowing she'd have to be on her toes to make sure they didn't hurt themselves.

"Quite fine, thank you for asking." Wheatley replied, not uncovering his eyes. However, the unfamiliar sound of the familiar person speaking registered and he pulled his hands away from his face, squinting to try to make out the formless blob of color in front of him. "...Chell? Is that you?"

"Yeah, hold still a second," Chell said, pushing the square framed glasses onto the man's face. It was hard for her to tell how tall he was with him sitting down, but looking at him, she would guess Wheatley was a couple hairs taller than her. Not much though. Whoever the human had been before, Chell couldn't really think of anyone that would match what she imagined Wheatley would look like any better. His expressive blue eyes only seemed amplified by the thick lensed glasses, his short black hair in disarray. He blinked when the glasses went on, a great big smile cracking across his features as everything came into focus.

"Brilliant! Great work there." Wheatley said, looking down at himself. His smile disappeared as he began to examine exactly what had happened to him; Wheatley lifted and dropped his arms, poked himself in the chest and touched his face. "...this is not..."

Chell worked on untangling the blankets from off the former personality core, vaguely noticing the light green jumpsuit that he was dressed in. Although Wheatley was continuing to murmur small statements of disbelief, Chell was more interested in the mechanism on his back. As illustrated in the diagrams Ratchet showed her before, there was a round metal frame that was mounted onto the back, the jumpsuit had been tailored to accommodate as she could see. The core had been stripped of its outer protective shell and was fitted into a more compact, pod-like frame; the unlit optic was the only thing visible from the new shell. The former test subject shivered at the sight, but was pulled from her thoughts when Wheatley waved a hand at her, trying to get her attention.

"So, unless this is another layer of Android Hell I've been thrown into, I'd like an explanation please!" Wheatley said, not seeming too pleased with his current predicament.

"You're a human now," Chell stated simply, going to poke the apparatus on his back.

"I...what? That...that doesn't even make sense-will you quit poking me!" Wheatley cried out, fumbling away from Chell.

"I'm not sure exactly how it works," Chell admitted, leaning over a bit at the sight of movement on the other side of the room. "But there were a whole bunch of men and women who were frozen and equipped with these things, core interface hardware...well, that thing."

Wheatley made an attempt at looking at his own back, but only managed to fall sideways in the process.

"And you're hooked up to it now, so you're a human." Chell said with a nod, this whole thing beginning to sit funny with her. Did whoever designed this hardware really think an artificial intelligence personality core would be able to function as a completely normal human being? Chell supposed that Ratchet did have the sense not to use the truly defective cores, but even Wheatley looked as though he was on the verge of having a panic attack. ...then again, this was the core that was terrified of turning on his own flashlight.

"Great. Lovely." Wheatley said, throwing an arm over the bed in an attempt at standing up. Although Chell moved forward to offer him an arm up, Wheatley ignored it. The former test subject tried to help again, offering her arm only to have it pushed away by the blue eyed man. "I've got it, I've got it."

Although it took a moment, Wheatley did manage to get to his feet and stand.

"See? No problem at all." he said and put his hands on his hips in a proud fashion. Chell didn't say a word, but gave him a small nod of approval, looking up when one of the others spoke from across the room.

"...masturbation is the leading cause of blindness among Catholic schoolboys."

That had to be the Fact Core.

Chell offered an arm again in a stubborn last ditch effort to help Wheatley not look like a moron by face planting after his first attempt at walking. Although his knees were shaking from the effort in simply standing there, he was just as stubborn as the test subject in trying to maintain a visage of prideful independence.

"Nope, perfectly fine. I've got this, no problem. You can...leave me to my walking. Now. ...go on then." Wheatley insisted, crossing his arms across his chest. Chell rolled her eyes and dropped her arm back down at her side, walking over to the bed that the voice had come from. She realized where the blindness factoid had come from; it seemed that the Fact Core had been given a bespectacled host as well. Chell didn't seem too surprised, seeing as most test subjects had been employees of the labs.

The Fact Core didn't seem too interested in sitting up or looking himself over as Wheatley had, having a rather blank expression on his face. It was rather creepy, really. But Chell dutifully picked up the round framed glasses and put them on for the Fact Core, the brown haired man blinking and turning to look at Chell.

"Women love diamonds for their wide range of industrial uses. Four out of five people die every year from giant diamond related accidents."

Chell was beginning to think that the Fact Core may have been better off not being attached to a human, but was pleasantly surprised when he sat up, looking around. He checked himself over and hardly seemed affected by the change. "Over 60% of the human body is composed of water." he stated simply. Like Wheatley, he was in a jumpsuit with the hardware base and core shell on his back. His hair was very short and neat, sticking up a bit of its own accord. His eyes and hair were both a similar medium brown, round glasses seeming to go along with the somewhat chubby built he had. His voice was flat and, although didn't have the mechanical overtones that he had as a core, didn't seem to have the emphasis and intonations as a natural human would have.

"And there we are. Here's one more...just a bit..." Wheatley said to himself as he slowly walked across the room, taking his journey one step at a time. He heaved a breath and plopped down on the floor next to Chell. "See? Told you I could make it. You didn't believe me, but here I am."

"The Intelligence Dampening Core is adequate at walking. ...and not much else." the Fact Core stated as he recognized the voice, a rather awkward grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. Wheatley's brows furrowed, but he didn't dignify the other former core with a response, crossing his arms and simply pouting. Chell sighed and leaned against the wall, closing her eyes. This wasn't going to be so bad. Once these guys were on their feet, she would be back out of this place in no time. As if on cue, Rick shot up in his bed and fell off the side while wrestling with his blankets. A fist raised out of the pile of blankets from the floor.

"Whoo! That was some adventure!"

Chell then started to realize that she might be here longer than she had first expected. 


	9. Sugar

Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.

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Author's Note: Alright, going back to my favorite simplistic disclaimer. Enjoy! Also, I think I'm going to name my chapters by what song I'm listening to when I begin writing. Yeah, we'll go with that.

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Chapter 9: Sugar

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"Alright, so let me get this straight." Rick said after he had managed to work himself out of the tangled blankets and back onto the bed. His dirty blond hair was a mess after the fall, but was short enough to where it could be tamed fairly easily. Although Chell wouldn't exactly define Rick's host as 'old', he was certainly older than the other two, mild bags under his eyes and smile lines tracing down his cheeks. It seemed that Wheatley's human had been the only smooth faced one out of the three; Rick rubbing the stubble on his chin and the Fact Core completely oblivious to the smattering of facial hair spread all over his cheeks and chin. The former test subject couldn't help but think about who the people had been before they were frozen, making a few assumptions on their appearance. Wheatley made Chell think of an intern; young, inexperienced and over-grooming himself in a desperate attempt to impress a boss. The Fact Core reminded her of a pompous nerd who still lived in his mother's basement; a bit more on the generous side and not bothering to keep himself up, just because he believes himself too valuable to be fired on the account of something as silly as appearances. And Rick...well, quite frankly he did look like he would have done better wearing a pith helmet and khaki shorts wrestling alligators than being in a jumpsuit at Aperture Labs. His build wasn't exactly that of someone who regularly went on adventures, being a bit on the soft side, but Chell figured that was probably due to being frozen for nearly a century. "...Chell?"

The former test subject realized that she had been studying them and not paying attention to what he was saying; all three of the men staring back at her intently.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that. What were you saying?" Chell said, leaning her chin into her palm.

"Alright, so basically you put each one of us onto a human with this doo-hickey back here." Rick said and indicated the hardware interface with his thumb. Chell nodded. "For what reason again?"

"Because there are currently two known members of the human race and thought that we might be able to add onto that." Chell explained. "However, that has kind of backfired seeing as you're the only three cores I could get my hands on. So right now, we're playing it by ear. When we get back to the surface, I'll talk to Rosie and see if maybe there might be a safety bunker or something. See if there are any other survivors."

"...right." Rick said with a nod, rubbing his chin again. "Wait, you mean we get to go up there? Like, outside up there?"

"Yes, outside up there." Chell affirmed with a nod.

"...square glasses are the leading cause of blindness among Fact Cores."

Chell sighed and turned around to see Wheatley and the Fact Core trading off glasses, Wheatley's eyes crossing as he attempted to focus with the round frames of the Fact Core's glasses.

"Trade your glasses back," Chell ordered with the same tone as a mother would use in scolding two children. Wheatley and the Fact Core begrudgingly traded their specs back, grumbling a bit between themselves. She took a breath to sort out her thoughts. "So, for now we're going to stay put. From what I understand, GLaDOS still hasn't been able to patch up communication with this area, so all we have to do is sneak out the back without her knowing."

"Well, why would it matter if she knew? I mean, she let you come get us, right?" Wheatley said, pushing his glasses up.

"Because even if we made a deal, you think she's going to just let four perfectly good test subjects waltz back out of here?" Chell asked. There wasn't any reason they needed to know that she had volunteered them for the testing in a last ditch attempt to get the construct's help.

"Good point." Wheatley muttered, knowing he probably would do the same thing if he were in GLaDOS's shoes.

"That doesn't mean we can't have an adventure!" Rick interrupted, feeling he had been silent for far too long. The Adventure Core stood up from his bed and began to make his way towards the door, but was stopped when a hatch opened up above the door and allowed Nurse Ratchet in on her management rail.

"Oh, no adventuring just yet," the Nurse Core said with a small shake of her optic, shooing Rick back. "I see you all are looking well. How's everyone feeling?"

There was a small murmur of 'okay's' between Wheatley and the Fact Core, Rick not replying just yet.

"Great!" Nurse Ratchet said with another nod, noticing Rick staring at her. "Is there something I can help you with dear?"

"Yeah," Rick said, looking the core over again. "How /did/ you get your optic that lovely shade of pink?"

"Oh for God's sake," Chell groaned, unable to believe what she was hearing. When he was a core, he was hitting on human women. Now that he was a human, he was going after the cores. There just didn't seem to be any winning with Rick. However, Ratchet was as unamused as Chell.

"It's magenta." the Nurse Core replied curtly, looking to the others in the room. "Now, if you all will follow me to the waiting room, we'll have a little orientation and let you go on your way."

"Space. Where we going? Hey lady. Lady. Lady."

"Yes! What is it?" the Nurse Core snapped, then trying to maintain a polite tone afterwards.

"Space."

"Leave him here please?" Ratchet said to the others.

The Nurse Core began to putt along back out of the room, the small gaggle of humans following her along. Chell did have to help the Fact Core quite a bit, but both Rick and Wheatley seemed competent enough on their feet, ignoring a few stumbles and fumbles here and there. The Nurse Core finally stopped on her rail, jerking her optic towards the empty plastic seats in the waiting room, starting to speak again.

"Come on, you all can take your seats. I'll explain more once we're all situated." the Nurse Core directed, swinging on her management rail. As directed, everyone took their seats and gave the Nurse Core their full attention. Chell shifted in her seat and tapped her foot on the floor, seeming anxious to leave. "Good, alright. Hello everyone!"

" 'ello!" Wheatley replied with a wave and a grin, but cleared his throat and withdrew when no one else greeted the magenta eyed core.

"Glad to see everyone made it here okay. That's a good sign. Now, I have some things I need to file and realized I forgot to get everyone's names." Ratchet said, looking to Chell. "I know you're not a patient yet, but I still need your name. First and last please, no nicknames. As it would appear on your file if you have one with us."

Chell frowned and wrinkled her nose, really beginning to get fed up with all the protocol that was involved in this sector.

"Michelle Soto." she sighed, grey eyes flicking from her boots to the core and back down to her boots.

"Got it and logged! Adventure Core, what is your name? No last name required." the Nurse Core said, knowing that the cores probably had names for themselves already.

"Rick. But my middle name is Danger," the Adventure Core said, rubbing his chin. The Nurse Core didn't seem amused by this quip; though Chell's impatient foot tapping was interrupted by an uncontrolled snort of laughter.

"Sorry, sorry. Go on," she said with a wave of her hand, hardly able to believe that he had really said something so corny.

"Okay, and Intelligence Dampening Core?" the Nurse Core asked.

"Wheatley, just Wheatley." he replied, not looking up when his title was called.

"Alright. And Fact Core?" the Nurse Core said.

"The Fact Core is simply known as the Fact Core." he said, a tone of uncertainty tracing his voice. He looked to Chell and back up to Ratchet.

"Oh, we can't have that. Let's see, I can pick a name. How about Jessica?" Ratchet said, apparently not knowing that there was a difference between a male and female name.

"Jessica is an acceptable title for the Fact-"

"No, his name is not going to be Jessica," Chell said in an exasperated tone, quickly looking to the magazines for some sort of name inspiration.

"Jessica is not an acceptable title for the Fact Core."

"Well then Miss Smarty Soto, do you have any suggestions?" Ratchet sneered. Chell's eyes scanned the pages, falling on an advertisement for a science supply company.

"How about Flynn?" she said. The Fact Core seemed happy with the choice, nodding a bit in approval.

"Flynn is an acceptable title for the Fact Core." he replied.

"Okay, Flynn," Ratchet said with a mild tone of distaste, sulking that Chell's suggestion had been taken over hers. "Now that we've all gotten to know each other, I'd like to direct your attention to the map of the biotechnology department here."

With that, Ratchet clicked on her laser pointer again, indicating a mall directory like plastic mount on the wall. Everyone craned over to get a good look at it, taking note of the 'you are here' arrow. The biotechnology department didn't seem as large as the physics related sector of Aperture labs, only having a few operating and storage rooms shown on the map and a single level to speak of. Chell brightened when she saw an exit labeled 'Elevator to Surface' on the far end of the map.

"Now, during your stay we have several amenities you can take advantage of, such as a library here, a relaxing room with real fish, and a cafeteria. Now, the cafeteria is only serving prepared and dried foods, so help yourselves to that and all the free water you can drink." Ratchet said, finally able to use the rehearsed introduction she had practiced so often to herself. "Are there any questions?"

It didn't seem like anyone had any, Chell standing up after the few moments of silence.

"No questions. We'll be going now. Thanks for your help." Chell said, waving for the others to follow. Although she really didn't feel like what she had found in Aperture would help the human race much, Chell wanted to get back to Rosie as quickly as possible with them. It was as though every minute she spent there only gave GLaDOS more time to weasel her way into the biotechnology department and drag them all back to the testing chambers. The sooner they left the better. However, Ratchet giggled when Chell spoke her dismissive farewell.

"Oh, you can't leave yet you silly Billy!" Nurse Ratchet said, rolling back as Chell whipped around and glared at her.

"Why not?" the former test subject said, fists clenching.

"Well, I should say they can't leave." Nurse Ratchet sputtered. "Unfreezing protocol recommends two weeks of isolation for all patients to allow their immune system to catch up with the changes in environment and having all necessary vaccinations performed in the meantime."

Chell sighed and rubbed her temples.

"Listen, I was woken up recently from stasis and I'm perfectly fine. I think they can handle it." Chell began to argue, determined to leave.

"Really? Oh, then I'm afraid you'll have to stay as well." Nurse Ratchet said.

"And if I refuse?" Chell replied, wishing she hadn't left the portal gun back in the room.

"Well, the only way back to the surface is that elevator," Ratchet said and pointed on the map. "And I'm afraid that I'm in control of that lift. Now, I'm not just going to let a patient out into the world without knowing that he or she is prepared for everything that's going to be thrown at them. That wouldn't be ethical, would it?"

"Neither is holding a patient against their will," Chell countered.

"Sometimes patients don't realize what's best for them," the Nurse Core replied flatly. "After two weeks, the elevator will take you straight to the surface and you'll be on your way. That doesn't sound too bad, does it?"

"Promise me. After two weeks, we're gone. No tricks." the former test subject said, knowing better than to trust a core so easily.

"No tricks." Nurse Ratchet replied. "Now, you four can explore the premises. Enjoy your stay." 


	10. You Don't Know What Love Is

Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.

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Author's Note: Just a general thanks to everyone who has been reviewing regularly and even those who have just dropped of a random 'good job' note here and there. As dorky as it is, I actually look forward to reading and replying to reviews throughout the workday after posting a new chapter. So even if I don't get a PM to you right away, you can usually rely on the fact I have read your message the day you sent it. So, just lettin' you know. Thanks.

~mage

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Chapter 10: You Don't Know What Love Is

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The was just something just slightly disturbing about the way Ratchet had told her patients to enjoy their stay, her intonation having that smug satisfaction that the small group of humans didn't have much of a choice. Chell began to walk away from the three men, looking determined to make sure their release would take place on the given date. How better than to check out the elevator and explore the area, see if there might be any override switches or other exits to the surface? Rick and Flynn didn't seem interested in following the apparently agitated female, striking out in the opposite direction. Wheatley found himself debating on who to tag along with, fidgeting with his hands in a nervous manner.

'Well, if only to make sure she doesn't get into trouble.' Wheatley reasoned, knowing that look of stubborn conviction. With one last mental confirmation, he began to follow after Chell. The former test subject gave a glance over her shoulder, noticing the black haired man following her.

"Yes?" she said, wondering why he was following her and not the other former cores. Chell had been hoping to poke around on her own, but didn't exactly have the heart to tell him to go find something else to do. As Wheatley stumbled up, he pushed up his glasses and grinned, seeming glad that Chell had stopped and waited for him.

"I was just, well that is just," Wheatley said when Chell turned around and questioned him, realizing he didn't exactly have a good reason to follow after her. "Just in the neighborhood. You know. Lovely day for a stroll. Or night. Whatever, whatever time of day it actually is."

The former test subject couldn't help but sigh, deciding to let him come along for the time being.

"Alright, just try to keep up," Chell said, starting to walk again.

The two continued in relative silence, Chell testing doorknobs and finding quite a few of them locked. She took a mental note on where they were, deciding she would try to break in some other time. Although the former test subject was enjoying the quiet, Wheatley was unnerved by the silence and decided to try striking up a conversation.

"So, you could talk this whole time?" Wheatley said, finally voicing a concern that had been bothering him. Of course, there was a lot that was bothering him at the moment, but that seemed like the first thing that came to mind.

And, just as she had answered Rosie when questioned about her tendency to not talk much, Chell nodded in reply.

"Huh. Well, that's weird. I mean, because I'd just assume if you could talk, you would talk. I mean, not like there's anything wrong with not talking, I s'ppose." Wheatley began to ramble, shaking his head to get his hair out of his face. Although her face didn't show it, Chell was a bit relieved to hear him prattling on like when they had first met. The other part of her wanted to go back to enjoying the silence, but there was still that part that was relieved. Not receiving a reply from the former test subject, he continued on. "So, where exactly are we going?"

Chell simply shrugged in response, not really having a direction in mind when walking.

"Right, okay. Here's an idea, just putting it out there. Maybe we should have a sort of direction or goal when walking," Wheatley said. His recommendation however earned him a slight roll of the eyes from the former test subject. "Or not. Okay, no. That's completely fine. We'll just keep walking then."

"You're the one that's following me." Chell stated simply.

"I am sensing some anger here." Wheatley replied.

"Well, if you don't like what I'm doing then you can go wherever you want on your own, can't you?" Chell finally said, deciding that her need to figure out this situation and desire for silence was overriding any enjoyment of company she would normally have. Wheatley's brows furrowed at her words, looking rather upset by the statement. However, he continued walking by Chell's side as they went down the corridor.

"Look at that, we're right near the relaxation room. I think we should go there, to the relaxation room, because that's what you need to do. Relax." Wheatley said, pointing. Chell stopped and opened her mouth to make a retort that they didn't have time to relax, but Wheatley started talking again before she could get anything out. "I mean really. I understand that we're kind of stuck here, but you're not even receiving the short end of the stick and you're the one that's panicking. Alright? I mean, I'm the one that was shot out into space and brought back just to be stuck to whatever this thing is and be put in control of a human body! I think I'm taking this really well and you're the one that looks like you want to tear the place apart!"

Chell closed her mouth, knowing that Wheatley wasn't dealing with this situation as well as he was trying to make it seem. What started out as confidence in his voice was slowly degrading into a more somber tone, the former Intelligence Dampening Core letting his mouth run ahead of his brain.

"I know, I know. I tried killing you, so I can't say I don't deserve this. I said I'm sorry and I really meant it." Wheatley continued to explain, pushing his glasses up and looking to Chell. He sighed, looking at the ground as he tried to make sense of what he was trying to say. "I...I really am sorry."

The former test subject looked at the ground as Wheatley gave a much more sincere apology than the previous one, once again feeling a small pang of guilt. She had only done what she thought had made sense for everyone in the big picture, not really considering the consequences of the smaller portions. She looked back up and gave Wheatley a small pat on the shoulder.

"You don't need to keep apologizing." Chell said. "We've both been selfish jerks. Question is, are you going to move forward or are you just going to stand here and sulk the rest of your life?"

Wheatley wasn't entirely sure how to answer, stiffening a bit when Chell patted his shoulder.

"I can't say I'm sorry that I put you where you are because quite frankly, it looks like the human race can use any help it can get." Chell said, convinced that the course of action she had chosen was the right one. "But I'll be here for all three of you every damned step of the way."

The former Intelligence Dampening Core was a bit reassured by this statement, glad to hear that she wasn't simply going to toss them aside and leave them to their own devices. He slowly nodded to show he understood, a small smile starting to form on his lips again.

"Great," he said, clearing his throat and gathering a bit more enthusiasm for this whole ordeal. "We should still go see the Relaxation Room, seeing as there's a real fish there and all."

Chell nodded, deciding that Wheatley was right about one thing; no amount of worrying would make time go by any faster.

"Come on, come on. The arrow says it's this way," Wheatley said and began to take the lead. Chell was unable to help a small chuckle as he went ahead. No hard feelings. Forgive and forget. She was glad that he seemed too light hearted or too dim witted a person to hold a grudge, unlike some other constructs she could think of. As she turned the corner, it seemed that Wheatley had already gone into the room, popping his head back out when Chell finally caught up. "Oh, you're going to love this."

The former test subject came into the small room, closing the wooden door behind her. It was a plain, white walled room with white tiles, a few surprisingly alive house plants decorating the room. Wheatley had his nose pressed to the glass of the large fish tank, observing the skeleton of the dead fish get flown around by the bubbler and filter system.

"Alright, the good news is there is a real fish in here. The bad news is it's dead. It is an ex-fish, ceased to be. Poor fish," Wheatley mumbled, unable to help but tap on the glass in spite of himself. Chell wasn't exactly surprised, taking a seat in one of the armchairs pushed up against the wall. They were a heck of a lot comfier than the seats that had been offered in the waiting room. Wheatley lost his attention in the fish rather quickly, observing Chell taking a seat and mimicking the action in a chair on the other side of the room. "But would you look at this? You've got your chairs, some plants, and a really real fish. A really dead fish, but it's real."

"It is really dead." Chell agreed with a nod, leaning back in the chair.

There were another few moments of silence, Wheatley fidgeting in his seat.

"And you're telling me to relax," Chell said, observing his fussing.

"Alright, alright. I'm relaxing," Wheatley said, trying to maneuver himself into a comfortable position which was easier said than done considering the mechanism on his back. "Relaxing starts...now. I'm relaxing. ...still relaxing."

"You don't need to narrate your relaxing," Chell said as she closed her eyes.

"Got it." Wheatley said, watching the fish blow around in the tank.

This really was kind of nice, now that the former core had finally stopped chattering. The peaceful sound of flowing water, the fresh, earthy smell provided by the plants. She almost felt a nap coming on when the sudden crack of metal hitting the wooden door shocked both of the occupants of the room.

"Cripes!" Wheatley yelped and jumped to his feet. "What was THAT?"

Chell shook her head and made a 'shush' motion, slowly going towards the door.

"Be careful," Wheatley said in as hushed a tone as he could muster. However, the babbling of another core on the other side of the door lowered their guard.

"Space. Space. Going to break the door to space."

"That ain't the door to space and we're not breaking it," Rick's voice came. "I just tripped. C'mere."

Chell opened the door and looked out into the hallway, seeing Rick holding the Space Core and Flynn heading up the rear, bracing himself against the wall to keep his balance.

"Well well, look who we found on our adventure!" Rick said. "So, decided to ditch the moron and-"

"I am NOT A MORON."

"...or not. That's fine, I understand." Rick said with a small cough, stepping to the side as Chell and Wheatley left the Relaxation Room. The former Adventure Core couldn't help but give them a sly look. "What were you two doing in there?"

"Just enjoying the fish," Chell said.

"It's really real." Wheatley affirmed.

"Damn, really?" Rick said, craning over to see.

"Yes. Really." Wheatley replied.

"Fish is the primary export of Antarctica." Flynn chimed in, standing next to Rick without bracing himself against the wall.

"Speaking of Antarctica, we were going on an adventure. Care to come along?" Rick said, looking to Chell.

"An adventure to where?" she asked.

"...hell if I know. But we're on one!" Rick said.

"The library is the hub of all human knowledge and some knowledge held by larva of the common furniture beetle."

"Alright, the library it is!" Rick corrected, pointing down the hall and continuing to walk in the direction that they had been heading.

"Hey, I think the library's this way mate!" Wheatley called and pointed to a sign that read 'Library', indicating another direction.

"I know where the library is. I'm just taking a short cut," Rick replied, not about to change his direction under the advice of the former Intelligence Dampening Core. "Now are you coming or now?"

"The human known as Rick is in fact not very good at adventuring," Flynn observed, but continued to follow after the gung-ho explorer with a small sigh, attempting to walk without the assistance of the wall.

"Should we go after them?" Wheatley asked, looking at Chell.

"Yeah, God only knows where they'll end up if we don't." she said, starting after the others. Well, at least Rick was keeping things interesting. 


	11. The Friendly Faith Plate

Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.

o0o0o0o0o0o

Author's Note: I am really sorry about the lack of updates lately, I've had a busy week and still quite a bit more to go. Last week was spent preparing a set of plushies for a store that I'm selling in, my best friend's graduation party and this week I only have one day off. And with that day off I'm going to my cousin's shipping off party, so...yeah, lots of partying going on. Hopefully things will die down after that, but I'm still going to try to get an update in by the end of this week.

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Chapter 11: The Friendly Faith Plate

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"You know, I really hate to say it."

"Shut up."

"I mean, I really do."

"Shut up."

Between Rick's stubborn unaccepting attitude towards directions and Wheatley's persistent direction giving, Chell was unsure of who to be more pissed off at.

"But I told you so."

"Shut up."

"I did, didn't I? I said, 'hey, look up there mate, that arrow's pointing towards the library'. Am I right?"

"The human known as Wheatley is correct in his observations."

"Shut up."

"Space."

"But, you know, that's fine. We'll just keep wandering around aimlessly. I mean, it's not like we're hopelessly lost or anything."

"Lost in space."

"Shut up."

"What do you know? Another arrow! Pointing to the library. Will we actually follow it this time or will we continue to go on our adventure in the complete opposite direction that the arrow's pointing?"

Rick continued walking in the direction that he had struck out on, ignoring Wheatley's indication of another sign. The former Intelligence Dampening Core began a slow clap as they walked along.

"Good choice! Brilliant, really. I mean, the arrow's pointing that way and all, but you are the adventurer," Wheatley said, pushing his glasses up. "I feel it's necessary to point this out that that was sarcasm. Not entirely sure if you were picking up on that."

"Shut up."

"Oh for God's sake!" Chell said, pushing past the others and blocking Rick's path. The former test subject pointed in the direction the arrow was pointing, deciding they would never make it to the library at this rate. "We're going that way, now move."

"Listen, no offense but you're trying to take directions from a moron. And I AM an adventurer," Rick said stubbornly, looking Chell over. Wheatley and Flynn were hanging back, beginning to feel an argument coming on. But Chell stayed planted in place, shifting from foot to foot when Rick tried to make his way past her. The former Adventure Core chuckled, putting his hands on his hips. "Feisty, aren't we? I like that in a lady."

Chell wasn't in the mood to get hit on, especially by a man who refused to listen to reason at the moment.

"Rick, if you don't turn around and follow the god damned arrows this second," Chell began, poking a finger into his chest. He hadn't expected this and instinctively backed off a step, obviously intimidated by the woman's brash intrusion of his personal space. "I will personally shove this high fall boot so far up your ass-"

"Whoa, whoa whoa!" Rick said and put his hands up, admitting defeat. "Whatever you want, little lady." He added that last bit with a wink.

"Same threat goes for if you call me 'little lady' one more time." Chell said and pushed back past Rick, taking lead of the group. Rick began to follow along, glancing at Wheatley.

"Happy?" Rick grumbled.

"No, actually. That was perhaps one of the most frightening things I've ever witnessed." Wheatley said in a hushed tone once Chell was out of earshot.

"She totally digs me." Rick said with a grin, earning an incredulous glance from the former Intelligence Dampening Core.

"And you're the one that's calling me a moron?" Wheatley finally sighed, threading the bridge of his nose with his fingers. The group continued to walk in relative silence, save for the never ending babble provided by the Space Core. Although it seemed that they were terribly lost, once they began following the arrows the trip to the library was a relatively short and simple one. Chell maintained her leading position, pushing one of the glass double doors and holding it open as the others wandered into the small library. To be completely honest, Chell was rather disappointed by the size of it considering Aperture's predisposition to go above and beyond the call of what was necessary. The selection of books and condition of everything seemed more suited for the library of a high school, but then again the Biotechnology Department seemed as though it was an afterthought in comparison to the Para physics related part of the labs. Chell allowed the door to close behind her, taking note of the former cores' hesitance as though they weren't sure what to do.

Chell decided that she would lead by example rather than trying to order them around, seeing as she really didn't care much for what they did with their time. Although the idea of relaxing was a bit difficult for her to wrap her mind around at the moment, Chell went to go poke around the book selections. There was a fair amount of children's books, along with encyclopedias for reference, sci-fi, horror, drama...it all became a matter of what she wanted to do.

"Space, gonna play a game in space."

Chell glanced over, finding Flynn and Rick beginning to dump the pieces of a board game out onto the table. Seeing the unusually variety of pieces Chell could only assume they had selected a chess set. That was certainly going to be interesting. However, it seemed that Flynn had some concept of the set up as he began to put the pieces on the squares. Heck if Chell knew if they were in the right places, but it was their project, not hers. Wheatley had surprisingly broken away from the others, staring at the book shelves with a glassy eyed look on his face. It seemed that everyone had found something to do but her. The former test subject found herself in the children's section of the library, wandering about with no real title or subject in mind. However, as she began to scan over the book's names, a smile came to her face.

'This was one of my favorites as a kid,' Chell thought as she selected a hard cover copy of 'If You Give a Mouse a Cookie'. She felt sort of silly really, but plopped down in the aisle and began to read the book in silence, savoring the comforting sense of nostalgia that washed over her. It seemed that the only time she would spend with her mother was with this book, right before she would fall asleep as a girl. Although sadder memories of her childhood gnawed at the corners of her thoughts, Chell pressed on through the little volume, closing it and placing it back on the shelf. It wasn't long before she found another familiar title, and another, and another. Eventually, Chell stopped putting the books back in their proper places and simply made a stack nearby, wanting to be able to find them easily in case she wanted to read them again.

The former test subject hadn't realized how many children's books she had plowed through until she spied the uneven stack of colorfully illustrated volumes, placing her latest acquisition on top of the others. She listened and heard the space core chattering in the background, Flynn and Rick grumbling between themselves. Chell stood to observe the game that was going on, Flynn sitting across from Rick with the Space Core sitting on the table next to the board.

"Space. Move space E7 to space C8," the Space Core babbled, Flynn moving the horse shaped piece in accordance to the Space Core's direction. "Spacemate."

"What! No, no no," Rick grumbled, honestly having no idea how the game was played except for the vague instructions given by the Fact Core, who would correct either party if a piece was moved the wrong way. "And it's checkmate, you cheatin' little-"

"No. Spacemate. Because I win, at space chess. Because you're moving on spaces. Duh." the Space Core corrected. Another awkward grin tugged at the corners of Flynn's lips at the exchange, seeming to find the argument humorous. Chell couldn't help but smile in spite of herself as Rick crossed his arms and leaned back in the chair.

"You cheated!"

"Space."

"That's not an excuse!"

"Space."

"Would you stop saying that!"

"Spaaaaaaaace."

Chell shook her head with another laugh as they began setting up another game, trying her best to tune out the arguing that was going to happen again soon enough. The former test subject began to go down an aisle that featured several collections of classic literature, a familiar name catching her attention peripherally. 'The Prince on the Art of Power by Niccolo Machiavelli'. The question was if she was feeling terribly mean that afternoon?

'Oh, a bit of mild teasing never hurt anyone.' Chell thought as she pulled the volume off the shelf and weighed it in her hands, deciding to seek out the former Intelligence Dampening Core. It seemed that Wheatley had made himself comfortable on one of the tweed couches in the far corner in the library, his blue eyes fixed on the text of a paperback book.

"Whatcha got there?" Chell said in a soft tone, the trained instinct to stay quiet in the library was one that was easily followed by the former test subject. Wheatley jumped a bit in surprise, turning to look over at Chell.

"Oh, a book." Wheatley said with a nod, holding it up so she could see.

"Which one?" Chell said with a small roll of her eyes.

"'Lord of the Flies'. Which has surprisingly little to do with flies." Wheatley said with a disappointed frown, turning the book upside down on his own little stack of books as to not lose his spot. Chell remembered that book with disgusting detail, making a face to show her disapproval. "What?"

"Just found something else that you might want to read," Chell said with a shrug and offered the hard covered classic to Wheatley. He glimpsed the title over and pushed up his glasses, not seeming amused by Chell's figurative poke.

"Well, seeing as I already have and do not see what the big deal is." he said dismissively, offering the book back.

"Really? What's it about?" Chell said, refusing to take the book back.

"Oh, I wouldn't want to ruin the ending. You'll just have to read it yourself," Wheatley said, trying to get Chell to take the book back again.

"I already did," Chell said and grabbed the book, tucking it under her arm.

"Then why don't you tell me what it's about then? Because you might be lying about having read it," Wheatley accused, crossing his arms. Oh, Chell was going to have too much fun with this.

"It's about two star-crossed lovers, named Romeo and Juliet," Chell said, finding it much more difficult than normal to keep a straight face. Wheatley nodded as though agreeing. "You see, they're both from two feuding families who won't allow them to be together."

"Is that right?" Wheatley asked, leaning over to examine the book that was now in Chell's arms.

"Oh yes. Now, Juliet fakes her death to be with Romeo, but Romeo doesn't realize she was faking and kills himself." Chell continued to explain. "And when she finds out, she really kills herself."

"Really?"

"Yes, really." Chell said with a nod, getting a strange feeling of deja vu.

"Well, maybe if Machiavelli didn't write about people dying all over the place he'd be more popular," Wheatley said with a small harrumph, feeling as though he had gotten through Chell's cross-examination successfully. However, when the former test subject began to laugh, Wheatley felt he had said something wrong. "What's so funny?"

"I just described Shakespeare's Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet," Chell replied, setting the other book down on the side.

"Oh, you're sick. Alright, fine. I didn't read it. There, are you happy? I lied about reading Machiavelli, but even if I did read it, you know what? I probably still wouldn't see what the big deal was," Wheatley said, throwing his hands up in a small fit of exasperation.

"Calm down, it was just a little teasing." Chell said, looking over at the other books Wheatley had stacked in order to change the subject. There was one about computer programming and another seemed to be a picture book on insects. Weird choices. "You read these ones already?"

"I just looked at the pictures in this one," Wheatley said with a small sigh, indicating the book on insects. He pointed at the one on computer programming, continuing to say, "I just sort of grabbed this one and leafed through it, not much I didn't know already."

And here he was going with the expert hacker guise. Really, now that she was talking, Chell seemed to be tripping him up all over the place and he wasn't catching onto the lesson 'it's better to be honest than to keep building bigger lies'. Although it was humorous, people were laughing at him, not with him. Chell suddenly leaned forward and grabbed up the book on programming, the former Intelligence Dampening Core making another snatch for it, not wanting Chell to quiz him again.

"Oh, I'm sure you wouldn't mind me asking a couple questions then," Chell said and pulled out of Wheatley's grasp, cracking open the programming book.

"This isn't fair, you expect me to have it all memorized?" Wheatley said, looking rather distressed by the thought of getting tripped up again in a lie.

"With a hacker of your caliber, I'm sure you'll have no problem," Chell said, cracking open the book. "I'll ask some easy ones. What does the abbreviation DOS stand for?"

Wheatley closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers and sighing. Was she being too hard on the guy?

"Disk operating system," Wheatley said, not opening his eyes.

"Got it, told you it would be easy. Let's try...what two characters are used in binary programming?"

"One and zero."

Although his close eyed scrunch-faced look of concentration seemed to indicate he was having trouble remembering, the answers were coming surprisingly quick. Chell decided to hit on details, see if he really knew his stuff.

"And those characters mean...?"

"On and off."

"Good. Okay...in C++ programming, what data type is used to deal with decimal numbers in an equation?" There was no way Wheatley would know-

"Floating-point data type."

Chell was really surprised by that one, the former Intelligence Dampening Core still holding onto the bridge of his nose. Although he seemed to become increasingly distressed with every question, Chell was too focused on proving her point and too stubborn to admit that maybe he really did know what he was talking about. It had to be a fluke; she just hit on something he just happened to remember. His hacking skills involved smashing a door open and hoping to push over the neurotoxin storage canisters. There was no way in hell he knew what he was talking about.

"The bool data type only has two values-"

"True and false."

"Overloading a function name refers to what?"

"Making several functions with the same name."

"In HTML formatting, the href command-"

"Makes a hyperlink." Wheatley interrupted before Chell finished her question, his eyes snapping open and hand flying forward, smacking the book down into Chell's lap. "Are you quite finished or are we going to have a written part of this exam as well!"

Chell jumped at the sudden movement and weight of the book in her lap, realizing that she was being quite the pest. Wheatley normally seemed very patient, but his brows were furrowed in an angry scowl which Chell took as she had pressed all the wrong buttons at once.

"Sorry," Chell said quietly, closing the book. Wheatley closed his eyes again, taking in a small breath and heaving it out. As he exhaled, it seemed like any trace of anger left his features and actually looked guilty.

"I...I yelled, I didn't mean-" he stuttered and looked to Chell, rubbing his temples. Now he looked panicked, like something was terribly wrong. Chell didn't know what to make of his sudden change of mood, watching as he picked up the small book he had been reading before, mumbling under his breath. "He-I-I have to go. Good night. Morning. Whatever time of day it is."

"Alright," Chell said with a nod. "Everything okay?"

"No worries, everything's right as rain," Wheatley said with an incredibly forced smile, waving a bit to Chell as he began to retreat.

"Okay, just don't get lost." Chell said, the black haired man making his way out of the library without another word. She couldn't help but worry that he wasn't alright, but decided that she would wait until the others got tired of playing chess before calling it a night. Chell leaned back on the now vacated couch, closing her eyes for a moment. Although she really did feel like something was wrong, Chell simply pushed it off, thinking to herself, 'I'm just being paranoid. It's been a long day for everyone.' 


	12. Dreaming

Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.

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Author's Note: Alright, I am keeping to the idea of using what music I'm listening to as the title of the chapter, but that doesn't mean I can't pick a song that's particular fitting to starting out a certain chapter; right? Also, I'm glad you're all worrying about the proper things, I am going to leak that I'm inserting a bit of foreshadowing into this chapter. Not going to say what, but I'm sure it'll be pretty obvious as much as I'm trying to keep quiet about what I have planned.

Also, reply if you're feeling Chell's pain in the financial aid sector. It's based on my own anger in trying to return to school only to be told that I don't deserve anything until I'm 24. BI

Anyways, typical read and review request here. Peace out all!

PS Also, warning on language here. Hope you guys aren't offended by profanity.

~mage

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Chapter 12: Dreaming

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"Chell? Whooo, Chell?"

The deep and comforting tone of a familiar voice snapped the young woman from her day dreaming, her grey eyes snapping open at the call of her father. Suddenly, it didn't seem to matter that the last time she had closed her eyes was in the post-apocalyptic world deep within the bowels of the Biotechnology Department. Any ideas of any life after this point left her mind; all that mattered was the here and now. And what was the here and now? As she looked about, Chell recognized the recently cleaned up cafeteria of Aperture Enrichment center, the wide picture windows and abundance of outdoor viewing reminding her of the cafeteria of a community college she had recently visited. There were quite a few employees milling about with their young daughters in tow. Chell found herself frowning; the idea of 'Bring Your Daughter to Work Day' had been geared towards the younger demographic, not a 23 year old like herself.

And yet, here she was. Her father set down a tray with a bowl of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich in front of her, putting a tray with a Cesar salad before himself. He seemed to be trying to 'reconnect' with his daughter quite a bit lately, trying every trick in the book to lure her home. Chell forced a smile and took a bit out of the sandwich that had been offered her. Ever since she had staked out on her own, it all seemed about getting her to come back home.

"Oh, thank goodness. I thought I lost you there," her father said with a jovial grin, taking a seat across from the young woman. Like many of the scientists, Mr. Soto donned a lab coat emblazoned with the Aperture emblem, though his dress was much more casual than usual considering the circumstances. His thinning brown hair was combed neatly in place, his own grey eyes meeting those of his daughter.

"Jeez, I start spacing out for two seconds are you're already worrying about me," Chell sighed, making a quip at her father's predisposition of fretting over her. She took another bite of her sandwich as she watched him begin to poke at his salad, obviously unnerved by his daughter's examination of his behavior.

"If I wasn't worrying about you, then that's where the true problem would lie," he retorted and pointed at his daughter with a fork, a serious look on his features. Chell chuckled and began eating her soup, realizing how long it had been since she and her father had a chance to sit together like this. "You know that's all I do, right?"

"Even though I've been on my own for five years and have yet to experience an emergency?" Chell replied between bites, narrowing her eyes.

"I understand you're getting by, but you're a smart girl." Mr. Soto replied and took a bite as well. "You're working two jobs to support yourself and I know you can do better than Taco Bell and Wal-Mart."

Chell couldn't help but frown when he brought up her most recent employers, knowing that neither one was a for sure career path. Why did he think that she was just going to stay where she was and never pursue anything more?

"Dad, I know," she finally managed, poking at her food. "They're just jobs until I qualify for financial aid. Apparently because I'm white, single and haven't popped a kid out I can't take care of myself. I'm considered a dependent until I'm 24, but after that I qualify for a whole bunch of grants and loans."

"Is that all you're waiting for?" Mr. Soto replied with an incredulous look, unsure of whether this was simply an excuse or not.

"Yeah." Chell replied, finishing the last slurp of soup. "But I'm never one to argue with a free meal."

"If that's all it takes to get you to visit me, I would have picked up cooking a long time ago!" Chell's father retorted with a laugh, finishing off the last bites of his own salad. Chell couldn't prevent a small smile from crossing her own features. Mr. Soto's expression became a bit more serious as he started talking again. "It's really nice seeing you again."

"I know, I know," Chell replied with a small sigh, brushing a stray hair out of her face. "I'm just so busy...but I'm glad I came."

"And even though we didn't make it to the unveiling ceremony," Mr. Soto said, indicating a large television screen on the wall. There were other professors and scientists giving their speeches on the advantages of the new AI that was about to be hooked up, the body of GLaDOS hanging limp in the background. "It's still nice that you decided to come in for 'Take Your Daughter to Work' Day."

"Even though I'm twice the other age of every other daughter here?" Chell joked, noticing two other girls running after each other in the open area of the cafeteria.

"Yes, even though you're old." Mr. Soto teased, stacking his dishes on top of Michelle's. "And in spite of a swine flu pandemic."

Chell couldn't help but groan when her father brought up the latest health hazard that had been issued, thinking the whole thing to be a silly ploy to sell flu vaccinations.

"First the avian flu, now swine flu," she replied, rolling her eyes. However, the plethora of people that seemed to be wearing face masks in the hallways indicated how many took this outcry as a serious public health threat. Chell waved a hand dismissively, not wanting this to ruin the time she was having with her father. "Hey, it looks like they're getting things kicked off."

As if on cue, the whole cafeteria grew silent, the announcer over the monitors was the only thing heard, speaking both to the assembly before the construct and everyone who was simply watching on the television.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we at Aperture are taking the initiative in the field of artificial intelligence research. Though our competitors' efforts are commendable, we are the first to unveil a fully functioning AI construct, the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System, or GLaDOS for short," a project manager announced from behind a platform also donning Aperture's logo. Flashes from the press went off as the man continued, obviously impressed by the turn out for their unveiling and first ever 'Bring Your Daughter to Work Day'. "Although I personally would like to delve into our work in other biotechnologies, that isn't what you all came here for, is it?"

A round of applause seemed to confirm what the scientist had expected, grinning in response.

"Alright, well for fear of the audience dying of anticipation I present to you all, GLaDOS!" the lead scientist said, the construct's body jerking to life. The audience seemed impressed by the show, 'oohing' and 'awing' in response, the newly familiar orange glare of the construct blazing to life. GLaDOS's body jerked again and shakily began to assess the crowd before her, an auto-tuned voice piercing the expectant silence of the crowd.

"...inferior life forms have been detected in the Enrichment Center." she said after one last survey, even her robotic tones conveying a tone of disgust and contempt. "Accessing protocol. Accessing. Initiated."

There was still utter silence as the newly awoken creature seemed to eye the crowd with disdain, the now all too familiar hiss emitting from the speakers of the television.

"Protocol outlines euthanization of inferior life forms," GLaDOS said coolly. "Lock down of the Enrichment Center is also reccommended. Happy 'bring your daughter to work day'."

There was an incredulous silence from the crowd at the unveiling ceremony and the cafeteria alike. Was this some kind of sick joke? There were kids there, who would have thought this was humorous? However, the lock down and euthanization threat became very real; the main lights began shutting down one set after the other, the generators kicking on the flood lights. The silence was nearly deafening as everyone in the cafeteria sat frozen in place, looking about when the lights began going off. The last thing that was seen on the screens of the television was panic; the crowd was choking and screaming, coughing up blood and panicking from the sudden flood of neurotoxin. With one last steely glare at the camera from GLaDOS, the remainder of the main lights and the monitors went black.

It had been completely silent moments before, but the cafeteria erupted into action just as quickly as this was all happening. Men, women and children all began to scatter in a panic, their first instinct was to run and try the doors, break the windows and escape. The tangy stench of a noxious gas began to sting Chell's eyes, her father turning and coughing as they too began to fight to get out of the way of the crowd.

"What is this?" Mr. Soto cried to a retreating Aperture employee, baffled by how quickly the crowds had become a swarming mass of animals. People were throwing chairs, using tables as battering rams against the break-proof glass, scratching and clawing at the doors. The other scientist didn't seem to hear his co-worker, joining in the effort to break the unbreakable glass. "Those idiots, they'll never get out that way. Alright, we have to stay calm, not get trampled."

He turned and coughed again, pulling his shirt up over his face as he and his daughter made their way to the side. Mr. Soto fumbled with his pockets, taking out keycard. Although Chell's mind was having difficulty processing how her father was possibly staying calm, he seemed to have an idea.

"The lab I work at has a separate ventilation system. If you can make it there, you should be safe from whatever she's pumping into the building." Mr. Soto said, shoving the keycard into Chell's hands. There was a small group of employees in lab coats attempting to calm the crowds and come up with a plan, Chell shaking her head in disbelief.

"What about you?" she said with a cough, rubbing the tears out of her eyes. "What about everyone else?"

"I'll meet you up there," Mr. Soto said, pushing Chell gently. "We don't have time or the room to save everyone else. Just get up there and save yourself."

She gripped the keycard and did the only thing she could push herself to do; run. All the crowds were swarming towards the picture windows and the near promise of an exit, which made travel very difficult for the young woman. She wished that she could bring herself to cry out, tell everyone to follow her to safety, but her father was right. They couldn't save everyone, and trying would just jeopardize all the others. Why was this happening? Dear God, this wasn't supposed to happen. Chell managed to get onto a stairwell and began to climb up the steps, shoving like a quarterback against the panicked throngs of men, women and children. Shrill screams and cries could be heard everywhere, whether from the gas or being trampled underfoot it was hard to tell.

As Chell exited onto the second floor, she charged to Biology Lab 1. The crowds became less and less dense, eventually disappearing altogether as she ran down the hallway to the air tight sealed biology lab. She'd swipe the card, open the door, close it and be sealed in a gas free bubble. Chell noticed a few people that were watching her run, the girl unable to help herself as she turned around and waved them after, "This way! Follow me!"

Although many continued to plow along with the herd, Chell was glad to see that some people seemed to realize she knew where she was going. A dozen or so people filed after Chell, the young woman running ahead to the Biology lab's normally air tight doors to find it wide open. Chell deflated in disbelief, going and looking into the small entrance hall to the labs.

"Michelle? Michelle!" a tall man in a lab coat called when the young woman came into view of the Biology lab's entranceway, charging out with his arms wide open. He noticed the gaggle of other people that tagged along, waving them in. "Single file, all of you! Don't jostle our tech; we're working on sealing this lab off."

Chell recognized the weathered face that was before her, even in the dim illumination of the flood lights. His brown hair was combed and gelled into frontward facing spikes, a trimmed beard on his chin. Chell glanced to the side as the victims fell in line and scuttled past another Aperture employee working on the circuit board connected to the airlock, the hood of a sweatshirt obscuring his hair and a simple face mask obscuring his facial features. Swine flu was the least of his worries right now.

"Doug Ratman? How did you get here?" Chell stammered, getting ushered inside of the Biology lab's entrance hallway by the bearded scientist. He was a good friend of the family, someone her father had grown up with. A person that she could trust in this chaotic situation.

"Nevermind, nevermind, just get in." Doug directed. "We still have power in this lab surprisingly, so the ventilation system is still going. Even with this door open, we should be safe here until she manages to shut the power down."

"Which is going to be in two minutes, knowing our God damned luck," the tech said with a grunt, stealing a glance over at the two on his right hand side. The light from the lab glinted off his square framed glasses, the tech going back to work. "I swear to fucking Christ if anything happens to my baby girl or my wife I will kill her. Even if the robot bitch kills us all, I will return from the god damned grave to stab her right in her fucking optic. Right in the optic!"

Chell bit her lip as the tech spat and cursed, continuing to rant seeing as neither Ratman nor herself had anything to add.

"Locks the whole damned place down, encrypts the key card slot-Black Mesa has easier lines to hack than what this robot bitch concocted!" he hissed, the blinking light of wires being re-soldered and moved about being one of the only lights in the small hallway.

"Frank, really. There are children here. No reason to use that sort of language," Doug said in hopes of calming down the infuriated IT professional.

"And all those little kiddies will be DEAD if I don't break this code. Swearing helps me think," Frank retorted with a smug tone, shaking his head and plugging in a device to a USB port on the bottom of the number pad. "And right now, if I say a dick in my ass will help me think you better be pulling your pants down Doug."

"Oh my goodness, I'm sorry," Mr. Ratman said, ushering Chell out of the hallway and into the small biology lab. "Really, he's usually not this hostile. I'm sorry, I-"

"Don't worry about it." Chell said with a small cough. "Are there other ways in? My dad's still out there..."

"Of course, of course." Ratman assured. "There are some parts that are already sealed off, but the keycard slot's working. He should get back in in no time."

"Oh, thank God." Chell sighed, looking to the others in the room. It was just then that the lights began to flicker, a voice crackling over the intercom.

"You don't like my surprise? Shame. I worked so hard on it too," GLaDOS said as the lights went out.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Chell? Chell?"

The former test subject's eyes snapped open as Flynn gave her another jostle, Rick poking her head and trying to wake her up. A dream? No, a memory. A horribly, horribly detailed one. Chell groaned and sat up, rubbing her temples. She was back in reality, back in the Biotechnology Department Library with Rick, Flynn and the Space Core. She hadn't relived that terrible day in quite some time, since she first began testing. As she took in a breath and looked up Rick and Flynn, they both seemed rather worried about her current state.

"What?" she said.

"Nothin', we just didn't want to leave you here," Rick said, trying to be polite for once. He offered Chell a hand up, which was taken with a certain air of wariness. The former test subject got to her feet and sighed.

"Yeah, sleeping on the couch doesn't exactly do miracles for the back." she said, trying to make it look as though nothing was wrong. Luckily for Chell, none of the former cores present were particularly astute in the emotions department. "Come on, why don't we head on back to the room?"

"Sounds like a plan little lady," Rick said as Chell pulled her hand out of his, shooting him a glare. However, she was too mixed up at the moment to reissue her threat from earlier. She wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to go back to sleep, afraid she would relive that memory again. 


	13. Tastes Good on th' Bun

Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Author's Note: I really am sorry about my lack of updates lately, things have been all over the place in my personal and work life, so I've had to concentrate a bit more on those things. Hopefully it'll be smooth sailing for a little while, but I know how things happen pretty suddenly. Also, I've been having a hard time mapping out this story and really don't want to charge down one direction and regret not having taken another path. So, I'd rather take my time and be happy with the results as opposed to feeling I could have made a better plot choice in the future.

Also, Wheatley's getting a bit of the spotlight this chapter because there's so many that are concerned about him in the audience.

Well, without further ado, have another action packed chapter of Hell on Earth!

~mage

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Chapter 13: Tastes Good on th' Bun

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Although it had been a rough naptime in the library, Chell still found herself able to slump back into a sound sleep once they had made their way back to the room the men had been in before, the former test subject taking up residence in the fourth bed. Although the Space Core prattled on for a while, he too eventually initiated a sleep mode while the other cores made humans were rather tired from all the excitement that had gone on the day before. The next six days went by without any real incident and even began to gain a bit of a rhythm; Chell was the first up and would wake the others, going to the kitchen and sharing a breakfast of water and rehydrated freeze dried food. They would often part and go do different things for most of the day, Flynn and Rick often heading to the library, Wheatley staking out on his own and Chell exploring the premises.

The first day on her own, she found the elevator that led to the surface, seeing that there weren't really any controls and that Ratchet really must have been the key to working it. Chell did notice a control panel, but it looked more like a security device than something that controlled anything, prodding at the disk slot and examining the USB port. Nothing hopeful.

Every day before their makeshift dinner, Chell would go into the waiting room and check on the connection status of the communications hub she had plugged in, noticing a red light. Although she wasn't exactly techno savvy, there was another light next to it, and a red light often meant something wasn't connected correctly. Which meant GLaDOS still hadn't patched up communication with this sector. A small smile graced Chell's face whenever she returned to that spot and saw that little red light, taking comfort in knowing that GLaDOS still wasn't able to reach them.

Even Ratchet tended to stay out of their way, only briefly speaking with them to check up on everyone, but didn't seem too interested in what was going on. She would simply whizz by on her management rail, observe them for a few minutes at a time and scoot on her way.

When day seven rolled around, things started off as they normally did with the group going to get breakfast after a bit of freshening up. As they sat in the dining area, Ratchet popped in on her tail, nodding to each of them in greeting.

"Good morning everyone," Ratchet said in her usual chirpy tone, the group mumbling their groggy hello's between mouthfuls of food. "Oh, what bunch of grumpy Billy goats. Now let's try again. I said good morning everyone!"

"SPACE."

"Ack, alright, alright. Enough good mornings," Nurse Ratchet said with a cringe at the Space Core's shrill call back. "Anyways, you have all been here one week and I'd like to have a group therapy session this morning to celebrate. Now doesn't that sound fun?"

"No, not really." Rick mumbled first, looking up from his soupy oatmeal.

"Think of it as an adventure," Ratchet said, Rick immediately perking up.

"An adventure? Alright, now we're talking!"

Chell rolled her eyes at how easily convinced the former Adventure Core was, Wheatley poking at his oatmeal and staring intently at the floor. Although Chell tried convincing herself that she was being paranoid, she really was beginning to worry about him. Ever since that evening in the library, he seemed to spend quite a bit of time off on his own and considering Wheatley's usually social attitude, that was cause enough for alarm. Even now, he was much quieter than he had ever been before.

Maybe a group therapy session wasn't such a bad idea.

"Alright, where do you want us?" Chell finally asked, looking up at the nurse core. Ratchet thought a moment.

"I'll be waiting for you all in the waiting room," the nurse core said, laughing a bit as though she had made a good joke. "Come on down once you're all finished with your breakfast."

With that, Nurse Ratchet began to putter backwards, leaving them to their meal. Everyone finished up and went down to the waiting room where both the Nurse Core and Orderly Core were waiting on their respective rails. However, there was a third core on a rail across from the other two, though was in close proximity to the circle of chairs that had managed to manifest themselves as though to indicate it would be a part of their therapy.

"Oh goody goody good, everyone's here." Nurse Ratchet tittered excitedly, nodding to the seats. "Come on, everyone can pull up a chair and we'll get started."

"Who's that?" Chell finally said, glancing up at the apparently sleeping core.

"That's Doctor Percy, he's our Doctor Core." the nurse core replied quietly as though not to disturb him. That begged the question why hadn't they been introduced before? Wouldn't it make more sense that the Doctor Core would be the one in charge of everything? Nurse Ratchet seemed to pick up on the suspicious silence, saying, "He hasn't been feeling very well lately, but he managed to wheel himself out this way. Thank you so much Dr. Percy."

There was no response from the inactive core.

"...right, so let's start. How's everyone feeling today?" Nurse Ratchet asked, looking around the assembly. Flynn really didn't know an appropriate response, so kept quiet. Chell was too busy fussing with the portal gun to make sure everything was adjusted properly, so didn't respond. Rick and Wheatley were both as lost as Flynn and found their shoes very interesting at the moment. Nurse Ratchet rolled her optic, her first ever group therapy session not going so well. "Miss Soto. How are you feeling?"

"Good," Chell finally said, looking up for a moment.

"Really? You're not sad? You don't have anything you want to talk about?" Nurse Ratchet prodded. The former test subject gave a quick glance at the certain blue eyed man that she was concerned about, but decided against putting the guy on the spot light.

"Nope." she said, going back to poking at the portal gun. The Nurse Core sighed, looking around.

"Come on, there has to be something you all want to talk about," Ratchet said, desperate to not let this session go to waste. However, the Doctor Core seemed to find that moment of silence to reawaken, the white light of his optic flashing to life and looking around in a panicked way.

"Staphylococcus aureus!" he spat out, shaking on his rail and optic darting about as he began to establish his surroundings, his pupil dilating when it fell on Ratchet. "Y-y-y-you! You you you-!"

"Ah-ah-achoo!" Nurse Ratchet seemingly sneezed, a thermometer shooting out of her dispenser and striking the doctor core in the 'sleep mode' button, the doctor's optic shorting out and his form falling limp again. "Oh, bless me! I'm sorry Dr. Percy-oh, he's asleep again."

Although Wheatley was still remaining oddly silent, he gave Chell a look as though saying, 'did you see that'? The former test subject narrowed her eyes suspiciously, something not adding up about this situation.

"Well, since you all seem too wrapped up with your own matters and it seems Dr. Percy has forgotten his manners," Nurse Ratchet finally harrumphed, deciding to dismiss them. "I feel I may as well announce now that the three of you are due for your first vaccination today before your release date of next week. Miss Soto, I have to look into your records, but you can assume that will extend towards you as well."

Ugh, Chell hated needles. But she nodded silently as she finally rested the portal gun in her lap.

"Well, since I seem to be keeping you all from such important activities, go on. Shoo," Ratchet sighed, obviously rather irritated by the group's sudden silence. But what did she expect? For them all to break down and begin crying about how their mothers treated them as children or have some sort of spiritual revelation? Chell really didn't feel too badly as Ratchet began rolling away, a little mechanical arm unfurling and pulling Dr. Percy along, the Orderly Core coming up after them.

"Worst adventure ever." Rick grumbled and stood, really expecting more than what happened. Flynn didn't seem too disappointed, though his face usually didn't show much emotion at all. He picked up the Space Core and stood, looking around at the others.

"...maybe I'm just imagining things, but that doctor didn't really seem like he liked Ratchet." Wheatley finally observed after a few more moments of silence.

"I believe someone has won the Captain Obvious award of the day," Chell murmured, brushing a few stray hairs out of her face. Great, the guy finally speaks up in her presence for the first time in several days and she shoots him down. Wheatley made a face and pushed up his glasses, going to stand. "Sorry, I didn't mean that. You're right. Something is definitely going on."

"First you say that you're bored because nothing's going on, and now you're complaining that there's something going on," Rick said, having a hard time really following the woman's logic. "That Doctor guy seemed like he was off his rocker."

"But Ratchet shut him down as soon as he started coming to," Chell insisted.

"She didn't shut him down, she sneezed," Rick defended, still working through a spur of the moment crush on the Nurse Core. Of course, that's how he was around most women, so it would probably only be a matter of days before he was hounding after Chell again.

"Rick, cores don't sneeze." Chell said, gesturing with her free hand to emphasize her point.

"Yes they do!" Rick retorted.

"Have you ever sneezed as a core?" Chell asked flatly.

"Well, no. But I coughed once. I...forced myself to cough, but I coughed once." Rick said, sounding a bit less certain in his assertions. If there was something going on, maybe that doctor core had an idea on how what she was up to.

"Either way, I think we should try to find Dr. Percy. See what he knows." Chell directed, looking around at the others. Flynn decided that the conversation wasn't really pertaining to his interests at the moment and began to wander off with the Space Core at hand, the former test subject deflating a bit. "Alright, so we'll do it without Flynn."

"Maybe I should follow him, make sure he doesn't...um...I'm going to follow him," Rick said with a nod. Jeez, for an adventurer Rick was really wimping out on something that Chell would certainly consider an adventure. However, the more she thought about it, the more Chell felt like Rick, Flynn and the Space Core would make a mess of things. Who knew how Ratchet would react if she caught them searching for or conversing with this Doctor Core she seemed so intent on keeping out of the picture. Chell nodded.

"Alright, just keep out of trouble you guys," Chell said, not showing even the slightest trace of anger at Rick's poor excuse. "I'll see you in the cafeteria for dinner. Sound good?"

"You got yourself a date little lady," Rick said with a short wink, starting to walk along with Flynn out of the waiting room with the Space Core in tow. And then there were two.

"Right, well...you probably don't want me to get in your way then," Wheatley said, pushing up his glasses and looking Chell over, glancing down the hallway as though to make a break for it.

"I think we can cover more ground if we split up, don't you?" Chell said with a small shrug, the former core turning his gaze back to her.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Wheatley said, a bit confused about that sentiment.

"I mean that I search half of the biotechnology department, you search the other half for Dr. Percy. We'll meet back here in a couple hours and go talk to him together," Chell said. "Sound like a plan?"

"I...yeah, yeah it does. B-but you're not mad at me?" Wheatley said with a small cough, gaining a bit more confidence as he spoke.

"Mad...? Why would I be mad at you?" Chell said, shaking her head.

"For, y'know, yelling in the library. Smacking your, my. My book down and all," Wheatley said.

"Is that why you've been avoiding me like the plague?" Chell said, an incredulous tone obvious in her voice. Although she was convinced that he was joking, Wheatley actually began to nod in response to the question. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, that's actually a good portion of it," Wheatley said.

"Wheatley. You have tried killing me. You have called me fat, adopted and tried repeatedly to crush me to little bits. I've forgiven you for that and you're worried about me being mad about you yelling at me?" Chell finally spelled out, rubbing a temple with an amused smirk on her face. "I really don't get you sometimes."

Wheatley seemed to realize how silly it was when she put it like that, clearing his throat and forcing a small chuckle.

"So, we're still friends?" Wheatley affirmed with a very serious look on his face. She's smile fell a bit at the sudden question about their relationship, but nodded in response.

"Of course we are," Chell said shortly, turning on the portal gun and rolling her shoulders. "With that said, are we ready to go look for the doc?"

"I think so." Wheatley said, his usual goofy grin spreading across his face. The former test subject nodded and pointed the map with her free hand.

"Well, know so. Now I'll search this half, you get this half here and we'll meet back here in a couple hours." Chell said.

"Got it," Wheatley said with a nod. Chell didn't find it necessary to say anything else, turning to start searching her half of the biotechnology department. However, the sound of footsteps behind her made her turn around to find the former core following her. " 'ello!"

"I've got this half, you get that half," Chell said, pointing.

"Rather than splitting up, maybe we can search your half together and then we'll search my half together?" he said hopefully. Jeez, he sulks around on his own for almost a week and now all of a sudden he's trying to stick to her like a shadow.

"No, because we have to hurry in case something really is going on." Chell said, flicking her free hand to shoo Wheatley away. "I'm not mad; we just can cover more ground this way."

Although a look of disappointment washed over his features, he maintained the small smile on his face.

"Right then! Off I go." Wheatley said, turning around and beginning to walk across the waiting room to the hallway leading to the remainder of the biotechnology department, Chell disappearing around the corner. The former Intelligence Dampening Core was all on his own again, the only sound in the hallway was his own soft footsteps against the tile, the high pitched hum of the fluorescent lights overhead and his own thoughts. Really? Had he been hiding from her for six days? It all seemed to pass by in such a blur that it just felt like yesterday he had snapped on Chell.

"Need to be looking for that doctor," Wheatley reminded himself with a murmur, beginning to open whatever doors he could and checking inside, finding a custodian's closet full of mops, brooms and cleaning supplies. Not there. Of course, he knew that hiding from Chell had only been a part of the reason he had gone off on his own, the other issue that had been bothering him seemed to be toned down at the moment. No need to worry about it right now, right now he had to worry about...

/Are you really going to open and check every single door?/

Wheatley nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden invasion of the snappish voice, the black haired man whirling around as though to see someone behind him. "Who's-wh-who's...?"

/We've only been chatting it up the past week, after that library incident. I really did think those answers would help you out./

Oddly enough, Wheatley seemed to relax, despite the fact the voice had no true origin. It seemed to come and go now, especially when he was on his own.

"Yeah, well some help that was mate." Wheatley sighed, opening the next door and looking around. Another utility closet. "You know, are you sure you're my conscience? Because you're being awfully chatty for one of those."

/Ah, because we both know how much you know about the human conscience. Trust me on this./

"Well, I'm just saying that I'd assume someone would mention something about a conscience being so talkative. I mean, humans can't keep their mouths shut about anything." Wheatley said. Although he had his doubts, he really didn't have any proof or reason to think that there might be something wrong with this picture. For all the former core knew, this was a completely natural occurrence that he simply had to get used to.

/You're not exactly the picture of solemn silence yourself. Don't you think it's only natural a conscience would reflect that?/

"Huh, guess that makes sense." Wheatley replied, pushing up his glasses. Another damned utility closet.

/Now let's work smarter, not harder./

"What's your idea?" Wheatley asked aloud, closing the door and listening to see what his so-called 'Conscience' had to say.

/Well, this Dr. Percy was up on a management rail. Why don't we follow them and see if we can track that to locations he might actually be in. No management rail in this hallway, so why don't we go over to the other adjacent hallway?/

Well, his conscience did have a point.

"You know, 'conscience' is such a mouthful to say," Wheatley said as he began down a narrow path to the adjacent main hallway, peeking up at the ceiling. A rail. "Do you go by anything easier? Something that doesn't require so much effort."

There was a momentary silence, before the voice finally piped up again.

/Frank. If you REALLY need something else to call me, Frank./

"Alright Frank," Wheatley said, beginning to check the doors once again. There was an office here. An examination room there. A passed out doctor core here...bingo! "Hey, hey hey hey. I think that's him. Let me...let me check. Yeah, that's him!"

There wasn't any other sound from Frank, the former Intelligence Dampening Core turning Dr. Percy over in his hands. Maybe it would be best that he waited for Chell and brought her back this way. Yeah, that'd work. Wheatley set the doctor core back down and left the office, taking note of the room number. 248. Back out in the hallway, Wheatley began to head back towards the waiting room.

/Before you go into the waiting room, go back to that last utility closet and grab the tool box for me. That guy looks fragged, we're probably going to have to patch his circuits back together./

"We could work on fixing him right now," Wheatley said, complying with his conscience's request. He opened the box without even really thinking, Frank giving a small mental confirmation that he had everything he needed to fix the core.

/Nah, too risky. He wakes up, Ratchet'll be all over us like AIDS on a hooker./

"Beg pardon?" Wheatley sputtered, only understanding a part of that metaphor.

/Never mind, just take the toolbox back to the office and we'll patch him up later./  
>"Right-o," the former core replied, dropping off the toolbox and making his way back to the waiting room. His conscience was quiet once again, Wheatley taking a seat and waiting for Chell. The wait wasn't a long one, the brown haired woman appearing a mere ten minutes later, seeming disappointed by her fruitless journey. While she was up front, Chell leaned over the front reception counter to check the status of the communication hub. Red light. Still no GLaDOS.<p>

"You find anything?" Chell said, expecting a negatory from the former Intelligence Dampening Core. However, Wheatley stood and waved her along, beginning to chatter excitedly.

"Yeah, I found him. He's in room 284. Or...was it 248? Anyways, we can check both because he is in one of the two." Wheatley explained, going to the closest office, which did happen to be room 248. As he opened the door for Chell, she went to the core that lay on the carpeted floor, a small ding in his head indicating he had been dropped from his management rail...more than once, considering his banged up appearance.

"He's still offline. Who knows when he's going to wake up?" Chell groaned, picking Dr. Percy up and taking him to the desk.

"Maybe he just needs some fixing, and...Oh look! A tool box! What a wonderful thing to have when. Fixing something!" Wheatley said, his awkward pauses making the statement of contrived surprise seem that much more phony. Chell quirked an eyebrow, but set the Doctor Core down on the desk and stepped back, gesturing with her free hand.

"Well, I guess if you really do know what you're doing." Chell said, though sounded really quite suspicious.

'I really hope I do know what I'm doing.' Wheatley thought to himself, taking a seat behind the desk and opening the toolbox. All the common tools looked so foreign, the former core getting nervous he was going to have to do this on his own.

/Of course I know what I'm doing. Now grab that red handled flathead and pry open the circuit board hatch in back./ Frank said indignantly, heard only by the former core. Wheatley shakily complied, popping open the back panel revealing a rather burned up looking circuit board. /Holy hell. Alright, we're going to need wire snippers, a stripper-/

"A what!" Wheatley said aloud, Chell's gaze snapping up from the core to the black haired man.

/A WIRE stripper, you damned pervert./

"You alright there?" Chell asked, her brows furrowed to show a bit of concern for the sudden outburst.

"Yeah yeah, no worries. No trouble." Wheatley assured, rummaging through the tools. He knew what wire trimmers looked like, but the wire stripper...not so much.

/And let's keep our conversations to ourselves? Don't want her thinking you're crazy. I can hear your thoughts loud and clear whether you like it or not./

'Great reassurance there mate.' Wheatley thought with a frown, suddenly recognizing the wire strippers and pulling them out of the tool box. Thanks for that one Frank.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Chell insisted, noticing that Wheatley was starting to have the same distressed look on his face before he snapped at the library.

"Yes, fine. Just please...don't talk. Delicate procedure and I really need to concentrate." Wheatley pleaded, talking over Frank's mental instructions.

Chell nodded and drew a zipper motion over her lips.

/Alright, from the beginning. Use the snippers to clip that green wire and move it to that spot right there. Should probably get your soldering iron warmed up, hoping the batteries haven't corroded./

'Okay, soldering iron,' Wheatley thought to himself, removing the tool from the box and checking the batteries. Seemed alright. He flipped the switch to turn it on, placed it on the edge of the table and went to snip what he believed was the right wire.

/No no no! Not that one!/

Wheatley jerked back at the mental scolding.

'All the green wires look the same!'

/That green wire has blue stripes, you almost cut the blue wire with green stripes! Get it right!/

'Alright, fine. Going to snip this wire, okay?'

/Great, do that./

Wheatley snipped the indicated wire with a shaking hand, really not feeling to well. It was bad enough that he had Chell watching this whole thing and scrutinizing every detail, not to mention the barrage of comments that were coming from his 'conscience'. He heaved a sigh of relief, though there was still quite a bit more to do. Wheatley frowned when his conscience began to prattle on, trying to indicate what to strip, how to do so and visibly jumped when the loudspeaker overhead crackled to life.

"Would Misters Flynn and Rick report to the waiting room for their vaccinations? Misters Rick and Flynn, report to the waiting room." Nurse Ratchet's voice came, Wheatley dropping the tools in surprise.

"I think we might be running out of time, you think you can hurry up?" Chell said. Her tone indicated she wasn't trying to apply pressure to the situation, but Wheatley was already feeling rushed, hardly able to pick up the tools and use them in the proper way.

/Okay, you heard her. Come on, let's step it up./ Frank said in a rather condescending tone, Wheatley beginning to feel a pressure in the back of his skull.

'I can't hurry up, considering /I/ don't know what you're doing.' Wheatley finally snapped back, even if on just a mental level. He continued in a rather sarcastic tone towards his 'conscience', replying, 'Please! If you think you can do better, then by all means~'

/I thought you'd never ask./ Frank replied in a rather sadistic tone, Wheatley's 'conscience' making what felt like a mental tackle over the controls of the body, forcing the core down into submission as he began to weevil his way back into the metaphorical driver's seat. From an outsider's point of view, it seemed that Wheatley was fainting, Chell springing forward to make sure he didn't fall out of the high backed chair that he had plopped down into. However, 'Wheatley' recovered moments later, staring at Chell a moment before assessing the task at hand.

"Hey, don't pass out on me!" Chell said as the black haired male straightened up in the seat, regaining consciousness from sudden change of hands in control.

"No worries, we'll just get this patched up." the black haired male mumbled, though his voice sounded...off. It was slightly deeper than what Wheatley normally sounded like, the accent not exactly discernible in his now mumbling tone.

"No way, come on. We're going to find Ratchet." Chell insisted, now concerned about the former core's nodding off episode.

"We don't need her. Now chill the hell out." 'Wheatley' ordered, jerking away from Chell in an almost disgusted manner. The former test subject stared as the black haired male began to work with much more precision than before, his hands no longer shaking as he stripped each wire and melted them into the proper place. Each wire fell into line and each circuit was re-routed with expert precision. Chell couldn't help but gape at how quickly the former core worked in spite of his earlier nervousness. However, Frank's control of the body was short lived as the core forced his way back into control just as the last wires were melted into place, the black haired male slumping down once again.

"Jesus Christ," Chell groaned, grabbing Wheatley by the back of the jumpsuit before he face planted right into his work. As before, the black haired male straightened and looked about, watching as the Doctor Core's optic began to flicker, Dr. Percy beginning to regain consciousness. "Quit dying on me!" Chell said as Wheatley straightened, once again in control after his 'conscience' had decided to take the driver's seat and lost it just as quickly.

"Sorry, sorry." Wheatley said, pushing up his glasses. Chell stared at the sudden change of attitude and tone, but was quickly distracted when Dr. Percy began to pipe up after the repairs.

"Ugh...where...? Am I here? I mean...where is here?" Dr. Percy began to mutter, his white toned optic flicking about the room, locking on Chell and Wheatley. Though his optic dilated a moment to assess them, it widened again as he began to become more coherent. "Where am I?" he finally said, his tone rather proper and quiet compared to many of the other cores Chell had met.

"In an office. You're safe." Chell said, though wasn't exactly able to speak for Wheatley after his two nodding out episodes. "We patched you up, it looked like quite a few things had been fried."

"That Ratchet," Dr. Percy began to say when Chell pointed out his condition, the doctor seeming to know exactly what had gone on. "She means well, but she tries too hard...too much of a stickler for procedure."

"Tell me about it," Chell said, fairly annoyed by Nurse Ratchet's predisposition towards procedure following, as ridiculous and outdated as it seemed. "She's getting ready to vaccinate Flynn and Rick right now, speaking of procedure."

Dr. Percy's optic dilated at the mention of 'vaccination', shaking his optic quickly.

"She can't be...those things would have expired decades ago, if my clock's right." Dr. Percy said, leaning forward towards Chell. "Either she doesn't realize that or she does and is hoping to keep them in this wing and take care of them...either way, she needs to be stopped before they're administered!"

Chell stared at the doctor for a moment, realizing he was serious about this whole situation.

"In fact, it may be best if you left here altogether. No telling what Ratchet has planned at this point," Dr. Percy said, jerking an optic towards the management rail. "I'm feeling much better now. Just put me up there and I'll get the elevator working. Ratchet can't override my command, so you two just go get your friends, take them to the elevator and I'll get you out of here. No problem, just go. Got it?"

He talked a bit more quickly than was normal for a doctor, but considering the 'quirks' that often went along with being a core, Chell dismissed it. Wheatley had been observing in silence, looking up only after the Doctor Core began to order them away, the former test subject helping him back onto his rail.

"Come on," Chell said, gripping Wheatley's arm and tugging him along. It wasn't precisely the most comfortable thing, but he followed along, realizing that time was of the essence. "You alright there?"

"Yeah, yeah," Wheatley assured, following Chell towards the waiting room. It seemed that Frank was spent after the sudden fight for control, his 'Conscience' completely silent at the moment. "Never better mate. Never better." 


	14. Adrenal Vapor

Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.

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Author's Note: Bah, I already know I did this but I really find it necessary to thank those that have posted reviews since my last set of 'thank you's. Mystic777, Yunyin, Ongaku, Mautau25, GreatZero and FoxHound47 were mentioned before, but I'd like to add Wildcard-Yesman, Souzou the Insane, theepitomeofrandom, Silvera Hikari, Jarvey, AceofFours, Chloe Kompton, FeeptheNinja, Harold3456, elegant Usurper, KizzyThaFox, and PikaShep to the list.

I really do appreciate any sort of reviews; from the smallest 'good job, keep going!' to the longest constructive criticism involving every little detail in the Half-Life universe, all of them are taken into consideration and mulled over in every update. Although I may not utilize every idea or hopeful muse thrown at me, it is at least thought about, read and considered, which is more than most can claim.

On DeviantArt, thanks go out to :iconkozloff:, :iconhaven1324:, :iconTippertot:, :iconSeihana-Chan:, :iconsniperguy117:, :iconOracleTurret:, :iconkirbyemma:, :iconDarknessTheWolf3303:, :iconUNomi1995N: -especially, because you ramble a lot in reviews, which I love-, :iconVampireNote13:, :iconminecraftah: and :iconkt2209:. You all won't be shown properly in the hyperlink shown in this Author's Note, but I'll make sure it's displayed by the 'Artist's Comments' under everything. 3

But, long story short, thank you all for your feedback and your comments! Keep them coming and lots of love your way!

~magefeathers

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Chapter 14: Adrenal Vapor

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"This is in fact not the right hallway to the waiting room," Flynn muttered flatly, managing a bit of a scowl at the former Adventure Core. Although he wasn't quite as expressive as the others, Flynn had certainly come a long way compared to the dead pan stare he had on the first day of being attached to his human host.

"It's a shortcut." Rick sighed with a small roll of his eyes, really becoming irritated with everyone's questioning of his sense of direction. He was the adventurer, and what was an adventurer without a sense of direction? The Space Core shook in Flynn's arms, deciding to put his two cents in on the situation.

"It is the hallway to space!" the Space Core chirped and was quickly interrupted again by Rick.

"There is no dang hallway to space. There's no door to space, no elevator to space, no nothin'!" Rick groaned, the Space Core seeming to consider the statement. A smug look began to cross Rick's features, but was quashed by the Space Core's second bout of logic.

"Okay. Okay, so the hallway with take us to a door. We'll go outside and waiting for us will be a taxi. To space. Beep beep." the Space Core began to hash out, imitating an accent to try to portray a taxi driver. "/Hello my friend! Where will I be taking you today? / Space! That's what I'll say, drive us to space. /Okee dokee artichoke. Here we go. / And then, and then we'll FLY. To space, in the space taxi. We will sing a song while driving to space, maybe about the moon. Or the sun. Because they're in space."

Rick and Flynn had stopped walking to listen to this explanation. The Space Core never really did shut up, but this particular rant was much too silly for them to ignore.

"So, sososo we'll fly and drive to space. And then we will crash into the Milky Way because the driver of the space taxi isn't very good at driving in space. /Oh my gosh, I have crashed! / In space. Eh, yeah. Driving to space. Going to drive, out there," the Space Core affirmed, rather happy with this plan. "Beep beep, space. Beep. Beep. ...speep. That's mixing 'Space' and 'Beep'. Because taxi's don't 'beep' in space. They 'speep'. Yup."

"There you guys are," Chell said as she turned the corner of the hallway, spotting the two former cores listening to the Space Cores prattling. He stopped for the time being, or just toned down his voice to allow Chell to talk over him pretty easily. "Listen, we found Dr. Percy."

"Did ya? Was he as crazy as we thought?" Rick asked, glancing over as Wheatley caught up with Chell.

"No, no. Nurse Ratchet's the one that's crazy," Chell said a bit more hurriedly than her usual tone, realizing after a moment that an explanation was probably in order. "We got Dr. Percy back online and he says that the vaccinations she wants to give you are way over their expiration date, but she's such a stickler for procedure that she wants to stick you anyways."

The former test subject took a breath, all this talking really starting to make her throat hurt.

"Well, you don't think she's going to try to track us down?" Rick said with a small head shake.

"Probably. But Dr. Percy said he's going to try to get the elevator to the surface going." Chell said, waving them on with her free hand. "So we can get out of here, no problem at all."

Rick and Flynn exchanged a look, but Chell seemed so confident that this plan was going to work. The former test subject took the lead without another word, making sure that everyone was following along. Although the looks on Rick and Flynn's face seemed to indicate that they were a bit weary of this plan, they came along anyways, Wheatley heading up the back. Trekking down the hallways towards the back of the Biotechnology department, no one said a word; the tense air seemed to only build up more and more as they finally made it to the elevators. This was it. Chell and company's ticket back to the surface. Away from GLaDOS, away from Aperture forevermore.

"Wait just a moment!" a shrill cry came from down the hallway, Ratchet whizzing towards them at a remarkable speed. She looked as angry as a core could, her tone indignant and accusing. "I thought you would pull something like this you ungrateful-ungrateful gooses! When I saw Dr. Percy occupying the elevator control chamber, I thought I'd find you all here."

Chell didn't say a word, simply poking the 'up' button on the elevator, the door opening with a small creak.

"Why are you doing this to me? Don't you love me? Don't you want me to take care of you?" Nurse Ratchet began to whine, rocking back and forth on her rail. "Stay here, stay here! You'll have all the granola you can eat and all the water you can drink and a real fish! Don't you like my fish?"

Chell motioned for the others to begin filing onto the elevator, still staring at Ratchet silently. The Nurse Core was shuddering, seeming overwhelmed by the idea that she would no longer have any patients to care for or check up on, even if this particular group had been rather distant from her. However, a little red light popped on near her optic, the Nurse Core quieting down before the light flicked back off. "A-alright. Fine. If you want it that way, I suppose I understand. Have fun. Be safe. Eat your vegetables and make sure to get lots of direct sunlight. Humans need that."

"...thanks for your help," Chell finally said earnestly, turning away from the core and going into the elevator, portal gun still in hand. The three men and core watched in complete silence as Chell entered the elevator and pressed the button labeled 'S'. The surface level. As the elevator dinged and the door closed, it seemed as though they were home free. There wouldn't be any turret serenades to send her off this time, but Chell figured that she would live.

"I can't believe we're actually going to be free," Wheatley said, the excitement apparent in his voice. Even as a core, he had always thought about a life outside of the facility but now, with a human host, he and the others could live a life the way it was meant to. He had to admit, after gaining control of the facility and afterwards getting shot out into space, Wheatley never thought he would ever be experiencing this; leaving the place behind with the brain damaged woman who had gotten him to muster up the courage to leave his management rail and turn on his flashlight. Wheatley realized he was staring, Chell's eyes meeting with his. He immediately turned his gaze to the floor, finding his shoes very interesting all of a sudden.

The elevator began to slow and the lights flickered, the car eventually stopping. Chell's heart jumped, staring at the stainless steel doors and willing them to open. Why were they taking so long? Just open.

"Well. A liar and a murderer. You really do seem to love upping the ante, don't you?"

No. That voice. This had to be a sick, sick joke.

"But I can't say I didn't expect this. Good thing you at least kept your promise to hook up the communications hub."

The red light! She couldn't have patched up communications, the light wasn't blinking, wasn't green, wasn't anything!

"I've spoken with that Nurse Core on several occasions, ambitious little thing. But neither she nor that Doctor Core can override my commands. I'm glad she was so understanding about releasing you all early. She was actually worried I might hurt you. But don't worry, I won't hurt you."

Rick was beginning to try prying open the door, Chell unable to move. She simply stared up at the ceiling, wondering what cruel God seemed to derive so much pleasure from her misery.

"That's the turrets' jobs. Speaking of them, we have a lot of testing to do and so very little time to do it in. I even acquired another test subject to keep you all company. But enough talk. The elevator seems to be going in the wrong direction. Here, I'll fix that for all of you."

The elevator shook once again and began to descend, Chell still silent as the look of awe became one of anger, the woman shoving all hope, all sadness and all fear into her gut and replacing it with spite towards the psychotic AI.

"And don't worry. You'll have much more company soon enough. I've found a store of personality cores that Nurse Ratchet will be kind enough to attach to more test subjects for me. How nice of her. I don't have to be concerned about her lying to me. Like some people."

Chell's anger only intensified at the prod, Wheatley beginning to panic.

"What do we do? We can't just-! We can't go back!" Wheatley said, trying desperately to push the buttons and make something happen.

The elevator car finally came to another stop and the doors opened to a hallway to another elevator that would take them to the testing chambers. Chell didn't say a word, stepping off the stainless steel elevator and into the tiled hallway, her eyes fixed on the emancipation grid.

"Chell, say something! A plan, we need a plan," Wheatley insisted, looking between her, Flynn and Rick. "Please, we can figure this out."

The former test subject shot a glare at Wheatley and the others, not saying a word and continuing forward. There was no escaping it. Not now at least. But she wasn't going to utter another word. Let GLaDOS say what she wanted, but Chell wouldn't give her the satisfaction of another reaction or argument. Wheatley's brows furrowed at Chell's glare, following along again as Rick and Flynn began to walk, even the Space Core quiet as they all got onto the modernized elevator, being taken to their first test.

"Well, no reason to wait. Let the tests begin." 


	15. No Escape

Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.

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Author's Note: Alright, honorary chapter title to the new Portal based short film titled 'Portal: No Escape'. It's an amazing little bit of work, so if you have some time to check it out I'd recommend doing so.

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Chapter 15: No Escape

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There was nothing but silence. Desperate, deafening silence. Even the Space Core had the sense to clam up as the modernized elevator climbed to their newest destination, a place the test subject had worked so hard to escape from and was now being pulled back into once again. Chell's grip tightened on the quantum tunneling device, staring at the floor as the elevator came to a halt and the door slid open. No one made a sound. No one made a move.

The woman looked up from the ground and turned to the three men. Her expression was stoic and solemn as always, but the three former cores didn't hold the confidence and control that the emotionally calloused test subject did. She could see the desperation in their eyes, the worry, the regret...Chell's brows furrowed as they stared at her, waiting to follow her lead. Although bitter silence had always been her best comeback in any situation involving GLaDOS, she began to come to terms it was her fault they were all here. It was her foolish mistake in striking a deal with GLaDOS without thinking it through, and should have known better than to think that the AI was two steps ahead of her. The former cores weren't at fault; they didn't deserve the receiving end of the test subject's silent rage.

"Listen up; we're going to get out of here." Chell said her tone even and firm. "I told you I'd be there for all of you and that is a promise I plan on keeping. Alright?"

Flynn's expression was rather blank as was usual, but it was evident that Wheatley and Rick were reassured by the statement.

"None of you are going to die here. We're all going to leave here together and that's final." Chell said. "And one more thing. Don't talk. It really pisses her off."

Rick cracked a small grin at Chell's remark, patting Chell on the back.

"Atta girl. No challenge we can't handle." Rick said, looking over at the other two.

"Right right, all for one. One for all." Wheatley said, hushing up abruptly when Chell pressed a finger to her lips to indicate that their silent act was to begin now. By the time they began to make their way off of the elevator, GLaDOS was already becoming impatient with their hesitance in stepping off the lift.

"Finally. I was starting to think you had forgotten the way off the elevator." GLaDOS said, Chell leading the group out into the test chamber. Chell took a look around, beginning to examine their surroundings. "I've actually made some interesting discoveries in your absence. Would you like to hear them?"

There was no response from anyone in the group, even the Space Core playing the quiet game. The AI wasn't amused, pausing a moment and was sorely disappointed by the lack of response.

"It seems that the mute bug has gone around. Let's just hope you all didn't catch the moron bug from a certain core, otherwise this testing won't be too interesting." GLaDOS said flatly, Wheatley using every bit of will power to not shout back. "Well, I'll tell you anyways. Co-operative testing with Orange and Blue has shown that science can indeed be fun, especially when performed with a partner. I think I'll let all of you warm up to one another in this environment, and then we can try some co-operative testing."

There was only silence as Chell began to lift the weighted cube to a button, the others following along afterwards.

"You are all so stunned at how good of an idea this is. I understand." GLaDOS said. With that, there was silence. Chell rolled her eyes a bit as she shot a portal on a nearby wall and then on one to ensure their safe crossing of an acid mote, motioning the others to follow her. It was really quite a simple puzzle, the group crossing the emancipation grid and getting onto the elevator, getting taken to the next chamber. "Good work. But I've seen quite a bit of you testing before. Why don't you let someone else have a turn?"

Chell glanced at the others, offering up the portal gun to whoever wanted to take it. Rick seemed more than eager to show off and was quick to grab the gun out of her hands.

"The Adventure Core, if I'm not mistaken. Interesting choice." GLaDOS noted as they stepped off the elevator. There was no other comment from the AI as they proceeded to the next chamber. This one was a bit trickier, but didn't present any dangers like the chamber before them. Rick frowned as he fidgeted with the gun, looking around at the elements that were available. They were on a tall platform with no portal surfaces that would take them directly from the entrance to the exit platform. That would have been too easy. There was a hard light bridge high above them...with a portal surface. Rick began to put two and two together fairly quickly, shooting a portal at the end of the hard light bridge. Now there had to be another surface...yes! An orange portal off to the side and voila! A hard light bridge crossing to the other platform. Easy!

Chell grinned a bit at the look of accomplishment on Rick's features as he stepped onto the hard light bridge testingly, waving everyone else on. Chell was next, followed by Flynn and the Space Core, and Wheatley headed up the back.

"Just make sure not to look down. That would be an awfully long fall for those of you who haven't been equipped with Aperture's long fall boots." GLaDOS taunted, but the group seemed relatively undeterred. That is until Wheatley did the foolish thing and looked down through the bridge. Of course, this action was observed by the construct, as well as Wheatley's subsequent look of terror and shaking knees. "Not that humans really need their legs to live. It will just be incredibly painful to shatter every bone in your body."

Chell didn't realize that GLaDOS was speaking to someone specifically until they all made it onto the exit platform, save for Wheatley who was now frozen in place on the hard light bridge. She was about to go back for them when she noticed Rick about to cross the threshold of the emancipation grid, the woman grabbing him roughly by the back of his jumpsuit.

"Hey, what gives?" Rick said as he was yanked backwards, looking over at Wheatley when Chell pointed. If Rick had gone one step further, both portals would have vanished and sent Wheatley falling. "What's he doing?"

Chell shook her head and went back out onto the bridge again, silently trying to urge Wheatley forward. The former intelligence dampening core shook his head.

"No, nonono. That is a long fall. A really long fall," Wheatley said, shaking his head.

"And you think standing there is going to do you any good?" Chell said in a harsh whisper, walking back on the bridge in front of him. Although she had a good point, Wheatley was too worried about taking a step and tumbling off, as unreasonable as that sounded. Although his conscience had been silent for quite some time now, an internal murmur urged him forward, despite his fears.

/Come on; just take one step after the other. / Frank said in a surprisingly soft tone, sounding rather weak. At this point, Chell was holding out a hand with an urging expression on her face.

"You can do this." Chell said, her eyes locking with Wheatley's. The former intelligence dampening core finally took a step forward, his palm pressing against Chell's as her fingers gripped his hand, tugging him gently forward. Although he was still shaken up, Wheatley definitely found a bit more confidence in his step as Chell pulled him along, the two stepping off the bridge and onto the exit platform, the group clearing the emancipation grid together.

"Well, that was touching. It's at times like this I'm glad that I don't have a stomach, because I would most certainly become ill from your interactions." GLaDOS said coldly, a bit disappointed that no one had fallen off the bridge. As they went onto the elevator to the next testing chamber, a panel opened up in the side of the room behind the elevator, revealing the equipment that the men were missing; long fall boots. "As funny as it would be for you to break every bone in your body, I'm afraid that doesn't help my testing situation any. So here you are. It's a one size fits all boot. So if it doesn't fit, I can't help you."

Already GLaDOS was beginning to wear on Chell's nerves. She watched as the portal gun and Space Core were set aside, everyone getting on their boots after a few minutes of figuring out how to properly fasten the straps. The Space Core seemed to be in a more cheerful mood now, despite the 'no talking' rule that had been set. Everyone else had broken it besides the Fact Core, so why couldn't he?

"Going to test space. Portals in space. To space. Eh, space!" he chirped, optic darting around as Flynn picked him back up.

"Alright, guess it's your turn," Rick said and offered the portal gun to Wheatley.

"My turn? Why can't he go?" Wheatley said, gripping the gun in spite of himself.

"Flynn's arms are currently occupied by the Space Core," Flynn stated, still unable to get out of the habit of referring to himself in the third person. Wheatley sighed and decided against arguing, the group beginning to go into the testing chamber.

"Oh, so you did pick the moron. I would have dumbed down the test more if I had known that for certain." GLaDOS said drolly, the group looking at the incredibly easy test that Wheatley had started Chell off on. Press the button, portal to the other side. Wheatley frowned at GLaDOS's sick sense of humor, pressing said button and shooting a portal on the other side of the unfilled mote. "And no. I won't insult all of your intelligence by having you solve the same test again."

"Alright, I get it! Easy test. Let's move on!" Wheatley finally called back, Chell rolling her eyes. Well, now the insults were just going to increase tenfold. Thanks for that Wheatley.

"Well, it looks like I struck a nerve. I would comment on your lack of control, but that would be insensitive to an adopted core such as yourself." GLaDOS said as the group filed onto the elevator, deciding to outline her plans. "Now that we're all warmed up, I think it would be interesting to see who can solve a test more quickly. After that, I'll introduce you to your new friend. After that, will be more testing."

Even though emotions were hard to hear on GLaDOS's auto-tuned voice, the way that she said 'new friend' was really quite unnerving, but Chell pushed off the feeling as they got off the elevator once again and stepped into the testing chamber. There was a narrow hallway; the right wall was solid while the left wall was glass, allowing them to peer into a separate test. It was then that P-Body and Atlas strolled into their chamber, the blue eyed testing robot waving chirpily to Chell. P-Body didn't seem amused by the presence of the woman that they had left in the Biotechnology department, leaning forward and narrowing his optic in a bitter fashion. Atlas's wave became less enthusiastic and finally stopped altogether when P-Body rounded on him, whirring in a scolding way. However, Chell did wave back, watching as Wheatley gave the portal gun to Flynn and took the Space Core into his arms.

"Orange. Blue. Please adjust the frequencies of your respective orange and blue portals. The last thing we need is to tear a rift in the space time continuum by shooting two blue or orange portals at once." GLaDOS directed, waiting for the testing robots to recalibrate their built in guns. "Let's see who can make it to the end of the test first. The other team members may not help. You may begin."

After a few short warbles, Atlas began to walk into the actual testing area, Flynn doing the same. Although GLaDOS had specified that the other group members weren't to help, Flynn made a terrible mistake. The laser of a turret quickly locked onto the human target.

"Flynn, run!" Chell hollered, but the speedy spray of bullets came too quickly. Flynn gave a cry of pain and scrambled for the safety behind a small protected area in the middle of the testing field. Chell knew how painful the bullets could be, but Flynn hadn't expected the shock and seemed to be in a state of panic, lying on his side while clasping his lightly bleeding leg.

"Guns were first discovered by the French in 1812 for the Revolutionary War. The male Bull Moose can grow up to heights of 12 feet at the shoulder. The plural of moose is meese."

"Flynn! Snap out of it!" Rick hollered, but the Fact Core was long gone, prattling off non-sensical trivia without paying any attention to his surroundings. Chell's eyes widened when she realized that the glass shield protecting the former Fact Core was cracking apart under the turret's attack. If he didn't get going, that turret was going to kill him!"

Chell made to run out into the testing area, but the already warmed up turret began spraying her with bullets almost instantly, the test subject having to retreat back towards the entrance for cover.

'Shit,' she thought as the turret began pelting the glass with bullets once again, Chell grabbing her now bleeding side.

"P-Body! We need your help!" Chell called over, having no other choice in helping her friend. The orange testing bot stared at Chell, looking to Atlas and back again.

"Testing protocol prohibits assisting humans in the testing process." GLaDOS warned.

"We just need to take the turret out!" Chell said, pointing to the wall behind P-Body. "Just a portal behind you and one on that wall behind the turret."

The glass was finally giving way, cracks and chips flying out in every direction.

Although P-Body didn't move, Atlas was quick to jump to the humans' aid, shooting a portal behind his testing partner and another over the glass wall that was separating the two testing areas. Atlas blipped and pointing in a demanding tone, P-Body hesitating, but finally crossing the threshold of the green portal and into the other testing area.

"Stop!" GLaDOS ordered over the PA, but P-Body was already in the humans' testing area, kicking over the turret and waving to Atlas. The blue eyed testing bot gave a trill of triumph, continuing with his test despite his partner's absence.

"Rick, you get Flynn. I'll handle the test." Chell said as they ran forward, taking the portal gun away from Flynn. P-Body jogged along the side of the human group, keeping an eye on his own partner from the humans' testing area. After the turret, it was only a few buttons and portals later before they all came to their exit elevators, P-Body portalling over to his appropriate side to ensure he got on the right elevator. GLaDOS's voice once again came over the intercom as they shuffled into the elevator, Flynn still very shaken up over the whole ordeal.

"I can already tell that I'm not going to have much cooperation from you. Although I don't think you deserve to meet the new test subject after that little performance, I'm still going to let you. Why? I'm not entirely sure myself. Maybe it's just my faultably kind nature." GLaDOS said, her voice still carrying that eerily calm tone despite everyone knowing how miffed she was over that last act. As the elevator chugged upwards, Chell could only wonder what was in store for them now. 


End file.
